CONSERVATION STATUS OF NON-RATTAN PALMS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Malaysia has about 443 species of palms, 263 species in Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo and about 236 species in Peninsular Malaysia. Recent work on the revision of the palms for the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia has completed drafts for the non-rattan genera of the family. This paper presents the results of the conservation assessments of these species, comprising about 110 species and their lower rank taxa, 50% of the taxa were preliminary assessed with conservation concern categories..

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DATO’ DR. SAW LENG GUAN

Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM)

Dato’ Dr. Saw Leng Guan FASc. spanned a career of over 33 years at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia until his retirement as Director of the Forest Biodiversity Division in 2015. He is currently a Research Fellow at FRIM. He served as the curator of Penang Botanic Gardens between 2017 and 2021. He was conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia in 2013. In 2016, he received the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh medal for his contributions in plant conservation and taxonomic research in the region. His main research interest includes taxonomic research for tropical plants of Malaysia and South-east Asia in particular palms and the tree family Escalloniaceae. He has also interest in ecology, plant conservation, habitat restoration, plant geography and linking science to policy. He currently contributes as editor and author to the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia and Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak projects. He has published over 85 journal papers and chapters in books, a book, joint authorship for eight books, described many new plant species. He has been party of the Malaysian delegation in the negotiations of the Convention for Biological Diversity until his retirement in 2015. He was also a former member of Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) for the Asia-Pacific region of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).