The "Alan Bunga" community on the Badas peat dome. Pic by Dr Jonathon Davies

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office through the British High Commission in Brunei has co-funded a management project which is part of the Heart of Borneo. Called the 'Rehabilitating degraded peatlands and reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions', the project is led by Dr Jonathon Davies from the Wetlands International Limited. The leading Brunei Government agency for the project is the Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation, JASTRe of the Ministry of Development.

The project aimed to garner support for such peat land rehabilitation within Brunei and within the Heart of Borneo countries by building mutual partnerships with peat land managers in Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to Dr Davies, 18% of Brunei's forest are peat swamps, most of which can be found in the Belait District. The natural vegetation of the peat lands is peat swamp forest which is still very much intact in Brunei, in contrast to that in other South East Asian countries.

Read more on the project's update here.