Forest Management Has Room For Improvement
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei's forest management can make foresters from other countries green with envy, but there is definitely room for improvement, according to forestry experts from Cambodia and the Philippines.

Forest management in Brunei has impressed those involved in the Peer Consultation Framework (PCF) in Forestry, which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is pilot-testing in Brunei Darussalam.

However, greater involvement of stakeholders, collaboration among agencies and the quality of manpower are the factors that need to be strengthened to ensure sustainable forest management in the sultanate, they said in separate interviews with The Brunei Times.

Nonito M Tamayo, a supervising forest management specialist from the Philippines' Forest Management Specialist Bureau, said Brunei has the benefit of not facing certain problems in forest management common to other countries.

"I envy forest management in Brunei because it does not have the usual problems that other countries have, for example problems like upland farming," he said.

"In the Philippines we have close to 20 million of our population who are engaged in upland farming activities, which involve forest burning. You can imagine the impact. This alone is a big issue," he explained.

Brunei also has the benefit of having sufficient funds for forest management, Tamayo said.

"In a country like ours where funds are limited, we can only do so much and we have to prioritise our spending," he said.

Asked to'comment on the effectiveness of Brunei's national forestry policies and guidelines, he said, "If I may recommend personally, you need to involve as many stakeholders as there are in forest management."

He added: "Sustainable forest management would require building awareness from different levels of society. Everyone should understand what it is."

There also needs to be close collaboration from different sectors of the government, he said.

“All sectors should be involved as the environment concerns the jurisdiction and try to encourage `multi-stakeholders'. Everyone has a role."

Cheng Kim Sun, deputy director of Cambodia's Forestry Administration, said: "Forest management in Brunei is good in terms of forest coverage, the downsizing of forest harvesting and the ways of sustaining the forest area for harvesting in the future as well as the nation's latest initiative of being part of the Heart of Borneo project."

"The number of virgin forests globally is getting smaller arid smaller, the Heart of Borneo does not just benefit Brunei; the benefits will be global," he added.

In terms of strengthening the national forest policy and guidelines, he said Brunei's voluntary involvement the assessment of PCF is a positive step.

"The PCF programme is one of the best means of assessing a country's forest management through our team as well as the Asean Secretariat where we are able to witness. Our selves the forest situation in Brunei," he said.

He added the programme has also given the PCF participants the opportunity to learn and share experiences and best practices.

Saidin Salleh, Director of Forestry Department under the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, said: "The PCF exercise has helped us with our future management of forestry resources. It will give us the core status of our present management."

"It is good especially that feedback is coming from a third party, not just from us. It has shown us how to handle things in the future and which areas to improve," he said.

Asked about specific areas that need improvement, he said: "For now all I can say is our human resource development and capacity building.

"Our existing manpower has background experience in forestry. In the future we need people who possess extra educational background such as chemistry, natural sciences.

"This is because in the future we are hoping to delve into areas such as biotechnology, ecotourism and pharmaceuticals," he added. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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