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Zeng Yiwen

Assistant Professor in Environment and Society

Asian School of the Environment | School of Social Sciences

yiwen.zeng[at]ntu.edu.sg

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I am an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, with a joint appointment between the Asian School of the Environment and the School of Social Sciences. Trained as an applied ecologist and geospatial modeller, my research seeks to understand how conservation and climate policy can be better designed to safeguard biodiversity in a rapidly changing world. As human pressures continue to change and reshape ecosystems, I am particularly interested in how limited conservation resources can be directed towards interventions that deliver the greatest long-term benefits for both nature and people while remaining socially equitable and economically viable.

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Together with a like-minded group of researchers, we bring together ideas from conservation biology, ecology, spatial science, economics, and the social sciences to understand and evaluate the conservation and climate action across landscapes and regions. We integrate field ecology, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, spatial modelling, and large-scale environmental datasets with environmental policy and economic analyses to understand where interventions are most needed, how they perform, and how they can be improved.

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Our work spans protected area management, nature-based climate solutions, community stewardship, carbon and biodiversity markets, human–wildlife conflict, and biodiversity monitoring across various spatial scales (from Singapore to Southeast Asia, and beyond). As conservation needs and environmental challenges continue to change, so too do the questions we ask. But our ultimate goal remains the same—to produce robust scientific evidence that helps conservation and climate action deliver meaningful and lasting outcomes for biodiversity and people.

Selected publications:

  1. Ong KYX, Chen Z, Chen T, Brito CTP, Zeng Y (2026) Ecological integrity of avoided deforestation projects. Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02657-2

  2. Zeng Y, Lamba A, Teo HC, Koh LP (2026) Limitations of carbon markets for biodiversity conservation. Nature Reviews Biodiversity 2: 335–344.

  3. Mu T, Zeng Y, Lu Z. (2026) Turning the tide of climate solutions to save tidal flats. Nature Sustainability 9: 783–786.

  4. Lim AJY, Zeng Y, Teo HC, Koh LP (2026) Pivoting forestry and agricultural concessions toward conservation in Southeast Asia. Nature Communications (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72921-8

  5. Kwan V, Friess DA, Sarira TV, Zeng Y (2025) Permanence risks limit blue carbon financing strategies to safeguard Southeast Asian mangroves. Communications Earth & Environment 6:57.

  6. Sreekar R, Koh LP, Lamba A, Mammides C, Teo HC, Dwiputra A, Zeng Y (2024) Conservation opportunities through improved management of recently established protected areas in Southeast Asia. Current Biology 34: 3830–3835

  7. Zeng Y, Senior R, Crawford C, Wilcove DS (2023) Gaps and weaknesses in the global protected area network for safeguarding at-risk species. Science Advances 9: eadg0288 

  8. Lamba A, Teo HC, Sreekar R, Zeng Y, Carrasco LR, Koh LP (2023) Climate co-benefits of tiger conservation. Nature Ecology & Evolution 7: 1104–1113

  9. Lin B, Zeng Y, Asner GP, Wilcove DS (2023) Coral reefs attract yet suffer from coastal tourism in Hawaii. Nature Sustainability 6: 254–258.

  10. Zheng Q, Ha T, Prishchepov AV, Zeng Y, Yin H, Koh LP (2023) The neglected role of abandoned cropland in supporting both food security and climate change mitigation. Nature Communications 14: 6083

  11. Sarira TV, Zeng Y, Neugarten R, Chaplin-Kramer R, Koh LP (2022). Co-benefits of forest carbon projects in Southeast Asia. Nature Sustainability 5: 393–396.

  12. Zeng Y, Koh LP, Wilcove DS (2022) Gains in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services from the expansion of the planet’s protected areas. Science Advances 8: eabl9885.

  13. Koh LP, Zeng Y, Sarira TV, Siman K (2021) Forest carbon prospecting for climate change mitigation. Nature Communications 12: 1271.

  14. Zeng Y, Friess DA, Sarira TV, Siman K, Koh LP (2021) Global potential and limits of mangrove blue carbon for climate change mitigation. Current Biology 31: 1737–1743

  15. Zeng Y, Sarira TV, Carrasco LR, Chong KY, Friess DA, Lee JSH, Taillardat P, Worthington TA, Zhang Y, Koh LP (2020) Economic and social constraints on reforestation for climate mitigation in Southeast Asia. Nature Climate Change 10: 842–844.

  16. Zeng Y, Maxwell S, Runting RK, Venter O, Watson JEM, Carrasco LR (2020) Environmental destruction not avoided with the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature Sustainability 3: 795–798

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59 Nanyang Dr

Singapore 637459

yiwen.zeng[at]ntu.edu.sg

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