Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall will start their official two-day visit to Brunei tomorrow, Friday 31 October 2008.

Tomorrow afternoon, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will plant the 1,000th tree of reforestation project in the Badas reserve area. The Heart of Borneo Initiative aims to preserve 220,000 square kilometers of rainforest through a tri-country partnership of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.  Over the past 6 months, children from the international and local schools have planted hundreds of trees to rehabilitate a fire-damaged area of primary rainforest in degraded Bruneian peatlands. The planting of the 1,000th tree in the Badas reserve is an important landmark and forms part of the International School of Brunei’s “Million Trees” project aimed at helping to restore forest continuity across Borneo in support of the Heart of Borneo Initiative.

British High Commissioner His Excellency Mr John Saville said today:

“We are delighted that the Prince and Duchess are visiting Brunei and seeing for themselves the strong educational link with the UK, as well as the important work which is being done in the Borneo Rainforest as part of the fight against climate change.  Brunei has played a pivotal role in achieving consensus for the 3-nation Heart of Borneo initiative, has allocated around 60% of its land area to the initiative and has created strong popular civil society support. I am particularly pleased that the UK has been able to help in practical ways.”

The Prince will visit the Heart of Borneo Rainforest project at Badas, where he will meet the main movers behind Brunei’s conservation work, both inside and outside of government, and talk to local school children about their involvement in the “Million Trees” project and wider environmental advocacy.

Professor Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist, who launched the Million Trees project when she visited Brunei with the help of the British High Commission in 2007, said: “I have been very impressed with the popular grassroots support in Brunei for the Heart of Borneo initiative; I am delighted that the Prince of Wales will have the chance to see the progress that has been made to date.”

Dato Paduka Awang Haji Hamdillah bin Haji Abdul Wahab, Brunei's Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources who is also the Chairman of Brunei’s Heart of Borneo Council added: “This visit will give us the chance to showcase our work on the Heart of Borneo to the Prince of Wales, whose keen interest in the environment is well known; it will also give our efforts a great boost going forward as Brunei strives to be a beacon of the Heart of Borneo Project and a strong model of public and private sector partnership”

The Prince and The Duchess will spend two days in the Kingdom, as official guests of His Majesty The Sultan of Brunei. On Friday evening, The Prince and The Duchess will have an official audience with His Majesty The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam before an official dinner at the Istana Nurul Iman.

On Saturday, The Prince and The Duchess will meet students and staff at UBD (Universiti Brunei Darussalam), which has strong links with a number of British Universities, including the University of Wales, of which HRH is Chancellor.  

During the visit, The Prince will present certificates to 26 Bruneian graduates who have graduated from courses at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff over the last two years. The Prince and the Duchess will also see a workshop for students on Islamic art techniques run by the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, a charity located at The Prince’s Foundation in Shoreditch.  The workshop is one of a series by PSTA, highlighting Britain’s Islamic credentials and promoting inter-faith dialogue.

Their Royal Highnesses will also travel to the British Garrison in Seria where they meet soldiers and their families as well as seeing for themselves some of the equipment and training techniques used for both desert and jungle warfare. His Royal Highness is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.

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