Bush fire hitting Brunei in 1998

June 2009

The project was launched in October 2008 to coincide with the visit of HRH Prince Charles to Brunei. Since then, the project has undertaken a number of important activities aimed at creating awareness of the importance of peatlands in Brunei and gathering support for their conservation and rehabilitation. It was formally endorsed by the National HoB Council as a project under the Heart of Borneo initiative in mid-May. As such, collaboration with other HoB countries is an important part of the project.

Experts from Wetlands international-Indonesia, who have much practical experience in peatland rehabilitation in Central Kalimantan and Sumatra, have now visited Brunei twice.

The first visit, in February 2009, involved field visits to potential rehabilitation sites with technical staff from relevant government agencies. The WI-I experts explained the practical ways of raising the water table and revegetating degraded areas. The field visits were followed by a feedback workshop at which rehabilitation strategies most appropriate for Brunei were discussed. The workshop also gave an opportunity for the government personnel to give their views on the desirability of applying rehabilitation measures to peatlands in Brunei.

The second visit, also involving the Director of Wetlands International-Indonesia, was focused on meeting high level government and private sector staff and also to discuss future directions and the further involvement of WI-I in implementation of rehabilitation measures.

The project has been widely publicised in Brunei. Press and TV media have been present during the WI-I experts visits, whilst a field trip for diplomats and the media was organised by Standard Charted Bank and the British High Commission to the Kuala Balai peat swamp forest in May, resulting in extensive coverage in the local newspapers and TV news broadcasts.

A field and satellite image assessment of Brunei peatlands is on-going, together with an analysis of their importance for carbon storage and carbon sequestration. Preliminary estimates indicate that, in marked contrast to neighbouring countries, Brunei peatlands are net carbon dioxide absorbers and hence very important in terms of mitigating climate change.

Progress to date has been pleasing - based on the activities in the current project, an outline proposal which summarises the design and implementation of proposed rehabilitation works will be ready in August 2009 to be circulated to relevant stakeholders for comments. A full proposal for funding will then be developed before the end of the current project in September 2010. It is hoped that some activities in the proposal can be funded and activities initiated before the end of this project, allowing a seamless transition from the awareness-raising and capacity building phase through to the implementation phase. Close collaboration with the million trees project is seen in the implementation phase.

Important activities for the remainder of the year include stakeholder dialogues in Belait District, meetings with Sarawak agencies on shared peatlands, field visits to peatlands being rehabilitated in Central Kalimantan, and training seminars for government and private sector personnel.

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