Lesser Sunda-Banda Average Sea Surface Temperature

Long-term mean sea surface temperature (°C) throughout Lesser Sunda-Banda Seascape over the period July 2002 to June 2013 at a 4 km spatial resolution. The dataset was derived by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) from remote sensing imagery acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua Satellite

Lesser Sunda - Banda Sub Seascape Boundary

The Lesser Sunda-Banda Seascape encompasses three functional sub-Seascapes: Lesser Sunda Seascape, Inner Banda Arc Seascape, and South and East Sulawesi Seascape. Fuctional seascape is defined as "areas within a wider ecoregion within which there is some geographical or ecological distinctiveness, but over a smaller area that maybe more suitable for the application of management measures such as MPA networks" (Green & Mous, 2008). These functional sub-seascapes provide a practical unit for marine conservation, including the design and implementation of networks of MPAs

Lesser Sunda - Banda Seascape Boundary

The Lesser Sunda - Banda Seascape (SBS) lies in the center of Coral Triangle area, a world-renowned center of marine biodiversity. The region is a global conservation priority based on its high diversity of coral reef species, high reef habitat diversity, strategic role in connectivity, significant role in sea turtle life cycles and significant to highly endangered oceanic cetaceans (Huffard et al., 2012). SBS signifies the entire Seascape, which encompasses two large ecoregions: the Lesser Sunda Ecoregion and the Banda Sea Ecoregion. The boundary of the Lesser Sunda-Banda Seascape was delineated based on coastal and shelf realms, provinces, and ecoregions, following the boundary of Marine Ecoregion of the World (Spalding et. al., 2007)

Environmental impacts of large-scale oil palm enterprises exceed that of smallholdings in Indonesia

The expansion of large-scale oil palm plantations in Indonesia has taken a heavy toll on forests, biodiversity, and carbon stocks but little is known about the environmental impacts from the smallholder sector. Here, we compare the magnitude of forest and carbon loss attributable to smallholdings, private enterprises, and state-owned oil palm plantations in Sumatra. During 2000-2010, oil palm development accounted for the loss of 4,744 ha of mangrove, 383,518 ha of peat swamp forest, 289, 406 ha of lowland forest, and 1,000 ha of lower montane forest. Much of this deforestation was driven by private enterprises (88.3%) followed by smallholdings (10.7%) and state-owned plantations (0.9%). Oil palm-driven deforestation in Sumatra resulted in 756-1,043 Mt of total gross carbon dioxide emissions, of which ~90% and ~9% can be attributed to private enterprises and smallholdings, respectively. While private enterprises are responsible for the bulk of environmental impacts, the smallholder oil palm sector exhibits higher annual rates of expansion (11%) compared to private enterprises (5%). Both sectors will need careful monitoring and engagement to develop successful strategies for mitigating future environmental impacts of oil palm expansion. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Janice Ser Huay Lee, Sinan Abood, Jaboury Ghazoul, Baba Barus, Krystof Obidzinski, & Lian Pin Ko