Bandar
Seri Begawan – Though fully endowed with
a rich landscape that supports a handful of Borneo Island’s intriguing wildlife
specimens from animals to insects as well as greenery, the country’s
development, if not planned properly, can potentially become an issue to the
survival of the nation’s natural environment.
Among
the concerns that come with urbanisation, shared the Deputy Director of
Forestry under the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources yesterday, is the
inability to sustain Brunei Darussalam’s wetland forests that can be found in
the vicinities of bodies of water in areas around the country’s coasts.
Sharing
his views on the sidelines of the two-day International Conference on Wetland
Forests that is currently being held at the Rizqun International Hotel in
Gadong, Awg Mahmud bin Haji Yussof, who is also the Interim CEO of Heart of
Borneo, Brunei said, “It could be considered that the condition of Brunei’s
wetland is endangered”, and saving it in the long-term is almost close to being
difficult.
“Some
of these areas are not under the jurisdiction of the Forestry Department, they
are controlled by other sectors and are subject to other unsustainable
development unrelated to forestry,” he said.
Fortunately,
however, the government does have policies in place to govern the protection of
Brunei’s forests to include the wetlands under the National Forest Policy as
well as the Heart of Borneo (HoB) project that commits to preserving at least
58 per cent of Brunei’s green gold.
“With
the HoB, the concern for protection and conservation of these resources is
institutionalised and therefore becomes a multi-sector concern because we know
that wetlands contribute to the environment’s stability,” said the Deputy Director.
It also protects the country against natural afflictions such as incidences of
flash floods.
“Nature,
if we are good to it, will give us protection.
Also,
wetlands store higher carbon concentration per unit hectare compared to other
areas and this is then converted to oxygen, which is needed for living beings
to survive,” he said.
“This
is why it is very important for us to disseminate the message now that we have
an endangered ecosystem in the wetlands,” and that, “We cannot destroy nature
and concentrate on development. We have to live in harmony in order to
survive.”
Taking
into consideration Brunei’s small size that translates into “very limited
resources”, stakeholders from various ministries, departments and even the
general public “have to play a role in order to sustain our forests and we have
to be wise when we use these resources to ensure that it can support all areas
of development” such as economic growth that can be generated from the
preservation of wetlands and support the livelihood of the people.
“No one
will truly understand how important wetlands are especially around the coastal
areas that can protect us from, for example, tsunamis,” he said.
The
survival of marine life, he added, is also heavily dependent on the survival of
wetlands. “These areas are very suitable sites for them to reproduce and
migrate to the sea,” he shared.
“If we
are not proper in our planning, if we do not consider the conservation of these
resources as one of the products of economic activity, the danger for the
extinction of our wetlands are very high,” he explained further.
“The
protection of our environment and the protection of our forests is not just a
one-sector responsibility, meaning that all sectors and all agencies have to be
involved. We are considered lucky as, under the purview of the HoB, we have
interactive plans in place for our natural resources so that we can formulate
good strategies.”
The
Deputy Director, meanwhile, delivered one of yesterday’s nine working papers
alongside international counterparts entitled “Wetland Forests in Brunei
Darussalam: The’Endangered Ecosystem.”
Borneo
Bulletin
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