Brunei limits agricultural land use to 1% to protect tropical forests
Brunei will limit its agricultural land use to just one per cent, a government minister pledged this week, saying that the tiny country on the island of Borneo has “strong political will” to conserve its forests, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported.
Brunei is about the size of Bangkok, but three-quarters of its land area is covered in forest, most of which sits within the Heart of Borneo, a 22-million-hectare landscape with vast tracts of high-conservation-value forest.
Brunei is committed to “sustainable and responsible agricultural practices,” said Pehin Dato Yahya Bakar, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, in his address on the last day of the Forests Asia Summit this week.
“We limit our agricultural production to no more than one percent of our land areas, even for activities as important as the production for staple foods such as rice,” Bakar said.
He said his country was committed to working with Indonesia and Malaysia – which share the island with Brunei – in conserving the Heart of Borneo, as they agreed to in a 2007 declaration.
“In Brunei there’s a strong political will and active participation of all levels of society to protect and conserve our natural forest heritage,” he said.
He said Brunei was also committed to leveraging on “technology and know-how” to achieve food security through using a higher variety of crops and more productive farming techniques, rather than clear-cutting forests for agriculture.
The country will continue to offer its tropical rainforest for use as research and study, Bakar said, adding that Brunei had decided to stop timber harvesting in its production forest reserve “to maintain the integrity of our forest ecosystems.”
“We recognize the increasing value of our forest ecosystem based on its ecological services and biological biodiversity to be of much value than the timber services alone,” he said.
Brunei will limit its agricultural land use to just one per cent, a government minister pledged this week, saying that the tiny country on the island of Borneo has “strong political will” to conserve its forests, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. Brunei is about the size of Bangkok, but three-quarters of its land area is covered in forest, most of which sits within the Heart of Borneo, a 22-million-hectare landscape with vast tracts of high-conservation-value forest. Brunei is committed to “sustainable and responsible agricultural practices,” said Pehin Dato Yahya Bakar, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, in his address on the last...
Brunei will limit its agricultural land use to just one per cent, a government minister pledged this week, saying that the tiny country on the island of Borneo has “strong political will” to conserve its forests, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported.
Brunei is about the size of Bangkok, but three-quarters of its land area is covered in forest, most of which sits within the Heart of Borneo, a 22-million-hectare landscape with vast tracts of high-conservation-value forest.
Brunei is committed to “sustainable and responsible agricultural practices,” said Pehin Dato Yahya Bakar, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, in his address on the last day of the Forests Asia Summit this week.
“We limit our agricultural production to no more than one percent of our land areas, even for activities as important as the production for staple foods such as rice,” Bakar said.
He said his country was committed to working with Indonesia and Malaysia – which share the island with Brunei – in conserving the Heart of Borneo, as they agreed to in a 2007 declaration.
“In Brunei there’s a strong political will and active participation of all levels of society to protect and conserve our natural forest heritage,” he said.
He said Brunei was also committed to leveraging on “technology and know-how” to achieve food security through using a higher variety of crops and more productive farming techniques, rather than clear-cutting forests for agriculture.
The country will continue to offer its tropical rainforest for use as research and study, Bakar said, adding that Brunei had decided to stop timber harvesting in its production forest reserve “to maintain the integrity of our forest ecosystems.”
“We recognize the increasing value of our forest ecosystem based on its ecological services and biological biodiversity to be of much value than the timber services alone,” he said.
