Asian governments, donor agencies and NGOs are faced with the growing challenge of addressing environmental threats in Asia on multiple fronts simultaneously. One little-reported trend is the rapid growth in foreign land acquisition in Southeast Asia. Already as much as 15 percent of Laos's territory has been leased to foreign entities -- mainly Middle Eastern countries and China -- some for as long as 70 years. Leasing land to produce food drives up prices, decreases forests and biodiversity, and often displaces the poor -- setting the stage for political and social unrest. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' China Environment Forum (CEF) invites you to the unveiling of Asia's Future: Critical Thinking for a Changing Environment, a report jointly produced by CEF and the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program, with USAID support. Asia's Future aims to identify some of the major drivers of environmental degradation in Asia and to highlight opportunities for USAID's Asia Bureau and other donors to improve their environmental protection strategies. Speakers will cover the results of the report based on their participation in the research, and give audience members a taste of the roundtable-style brainstorming with diverse experts that produced the report. Speakers: Jennifer Turner of the China Environment Forum will discuss the process and key insights of the project's roundtable research format, highlighting China's negative and positive impacts on the region. China's impact on the region notably has prompted USAID's Regional Office in Bangkok to hire a China environment specialist for the first time this year. Howard Shapiro, from Mars, Inc., will talk about some of the little-known negative trends regarding soil and agriculture in Asia. Robert Collier, Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, will discuss his climate and climate policy insights for China and the region from research for his latest, yet unreleased book. Co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' China Environment Forum, China Dialogue, Pacific Environment, and The Asia Foundation