On June 5, 2020, Brunei Darussalam joined over 100 countries to commemorate World Environment Day, a global platform aimed at fostering and enhancing environmental awareness as well as encouraging the support and participation of each and every community to play its role in preserving the environment.
The year 2020 marks the ‘Super Year’ for biodiversity. The theme ‘Time for Nature’ was chosen, focussing on the importance of biodiversity in providing the essential infrastructure to support life and development on earth and the need to care and protect it.
Human life is heavily dependent on the natural services of biodiversity, which are made up of many different types and ecosystems. As biodiversity encompasses the wide variety of species and ecosystems, it inherently provides many ecosystem services human lives depend on.
Biodiversity is the cornerstone that provides supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural services that we rely on for survival and livelihood. The interplay and complex relationships of biodiversity allow purification of our air and water, climate moderation, and disease control.
Our food, medicines, and heritage values are derived from nature. Alhamdulillah, Brunei Darussalam is blessed with an abundance of intact natural habitats allowing various wildlife to thrive and evolve both on land and in the aquatic environments.
Minister of Development Dato Seri Setia Ir Awang Haji Suhaimi bin Haji Gafar. PHOTO: MOD
Brunei Darussalam is blessed with abundance of intact natural habitats allowing various wildlife to thrive and evolve both on land and in the aquatic environments. PHOTO: LAU SHIEN CHUNG
We are also proud to harbor numerous species that are endemic to Brunei and Borneo and have contributed to new species discoveries. As we develop sustainable Brunei Darussalam, we recognize that we need to have a stable healthy biosphere that supports healthy human society to drive economic progress.
However, various challenges have to be faced in efforts to protect and manage biodiversity at the national, regional, and international levels. Unsustainable development, illegal trafficking and poaching, unsustainable deforestation, uncontrolled fishing or overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change are among the contributing factors to the biodiversity extinction and threat. These issues need to be solved holistically and require the cooperation of many parties through the Whole of Nation approach.
Hence, among the efforts of the Ministry of Development (MoD) in its pursuit to realize Brunei Vision 2035 in biodiversity protection and preservation is to regulate development through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirement for projects identified to have an impact on the environment, listed as Prescribed Activities. This requirement has already been enforced under the Environmental Protection and Management Order 2016.
Among the measures undertaken is to avoid areas of biodiversity importance, exploring nature-based solutions, outline and implement mitigation measures to avoid and minimize negative environmental impacts such as enforcing the need for relocation and replanting of flora and fauna, rehabilitation of affected areas, and so on.
As such, the MoD will introduce a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to raise awareness for developers and the public where they are encouraged to plant one to four trees per tree for all development activities.
The replanting of these trees will ensure that carbon sequestration is maintained while still allowing for sustainable development.
For this year’s World Environment Day celebration, the MoD through the Department of Environment, Parks, and Recreation will continue its ‘Take Your Action, Make A Difference’ campaign which began in April 2020 by inviting and encouraging people to act and play their roles in preserving the beauty of the environment that is gifted to us.
As the country is still under the threat of the COVID-19 outbreak, several activities have been organized using the online platform, as well as a ‘virtual run’, which can be participated privately and in accordance with the guidelines set by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and other relevant authorities.
During the month of June, the Department of Environment, Parks, and Recreation will be working with the Forestry Department and Brunei Biodiversity and Natural History Society (BruWILD), a local non-governmental organization (NGO) to disseminate information and raise awareness on biodiversity in the country via social media and will be partnering with Radio Television Brunei to hold quizzes on selected radio stations.
More information on the activities will be shared on the Department of Environment, Parks, and Recreation’s social media (@jastre.bn).
On this occasion, I would like to express my deepest appreciation and thanks to all those who have either directly or indirectly contributed to the preservation of the environment by both the government, the private sector and NGOs.
I hope that the efforts will continue and be further enhanced towards achieving a clean, green, and safe country. ‘Take Your Action, Make A Difference.’
