Bandar Seri Begawan - Does conservation come first or the country's food security?

Brunei's Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources and Chairman of Heart of Borneo (HoB) Council, touched on that point as he spoke at Standard Chartered Bank's second HoB project in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which will be the faunal biodiversity survey on the Sungai Ingei Protection forest.

It was held at the Sheraton Hotel "Sg Ingei Protection forest is part of the Heart of Borneo initiative and is believed to be one of the richest forests in HoB.

"The forests, water and biological diversity are critical, for the prosperity of the entire island. In other words, they are our life support system, our sustainable future and a natural heritage, which we inherit and we must preserve for the wellbeing of the future generation," said Dato Haji 'Hamdillah.

"The issue of food security and widespread utilisation of hectares of land for paddy plantation will continue to pose a challenge to the Heart of Borneo.

"This project will give the objective assessment that is needed to preserve the biological diversity in favour of conservation as opposed to rice production. This is a battle currently raging in the interior of our Heart of Borneo."

He also spoke on how the HoB project has provided a huge opportunity for capacity building for our young Bruneians not only in the government but also in UBD and other institutions of higher learning.

"We need to develop an HR plan to make sure the future generation is equipped with the knowledge and skills so that they can continue to responsibly and sustainably manage our HoB and contribute to conserve our prized rainforest and its bio-diversity. This is our local action towards the global battle against climate change."

Danny Quah, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank; Dr Glyn Davies, Director of Programmes of WWF-UK; and Dr Joseph K Charles, Senior Lecturer of Biology Department, Universiti Brunei Darussalam also spoke at the event.

The CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, in his opening speech, said, "In November 2008, Standard Chartered Bank Brunei was delighted to celebrate our environmental challenge victory Race for a Living Planet.

"In Brunei, through the support of our staff, the government, various ministers and our community, we received over 82,000 pledges, signifying 20 per cent of our population. It is indeed promising to see how engaged everyone is on the topic of environment and this is exactly what we wanted to achieve through this environmental initiative.

"Standard Chartered Bank Brunei is proud to have secured $700,000 to work in partnership with WWF on an environmental project and the full amount has been pledged towards Heart of Borneo Brunei," he added The project has been studied for its tourism potential taking into account its proximity to Sarawak's Gunung Mulu World Heritage Site and referred to the Heart of Borneo's trilateral Strategic Action Plan for Ecotourism Development and Transboundary Cooperation on Protected Areas Management.
By doing so, the project will address at least 13 of the 36 interventions in six of the 15 strategic thrusts that are recommended in Brunei's national HoB project implementation Framework report 2008.

The project, to be led by Dr Joseph K Charles from UBD, will be undertaken in two phases over the next two years. Over eight projects will be conducted throughout the expedition covering different aspects including the biodiversity survey of amphibians and insects, forest-dependent bats, water bugs, freshwater fish, spiders and more.

Most of the survey work will be carried out by staff and local students of Universiti Brunei Darussalam with the support of various government departments and the Brunei Heart of Borneo centre. This faunal survey project also emphasises the training of local UBD students for capacity building during the expedition.

Phase one of the Sungai Ingei expeditions will commence in 2010 and the compilation and presentation of findings will be shown in a seminar in March 2011.
The participating government departments include Forestry, Agriculture, and Tourism Departments from the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, Brunei Museum, Survey Department, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Development.

In addition, carefully selected experts from Brunei and its neighbours will be invited to participate as well. The result of the project will contribute to scientific knowledge, wildlife conservation management, tourism planning and development, transboundary cooperation and Brunei's global prestige as a rainforest treasure house.