THE opening ceremony of the first Heart of Borneo (HoB) Youth Seminar was held yesterday at the Youth Centre in Bandar Seri Begawan. About 31 participants from Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia will be taking part in the three-day seminar to discuss the various challenges and opportunities for the HoB in promoting sustainable development through ideas. With the theme ‘Empowering Youth Leaders for Sustainable Development’, the seminar’s objectives include to develop an understanding of the Heart of Borneo Initiative amongst youths, as well as to identify potential areas to develop the economy. Moreover, youths are encouraged to take on leadership as a way to promote the HoB and ensuring sustainable development of their countries. The opening ceremony’s guest of honour was Wardi bin Haji Mohammad Ali, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Tourism) at…

THE Heart of Borneo (HoB) corridor project — a landscape connectivity project that will link a series of protected areas in Borneo under the HoB initiative — will be able to preserve the genetic diversity of the sultanate’s wildlife, said the initiative’s leader. In his keynote address during the opening ceremony of the Heart of Borneo Youth Seminar yesterday, Dr Henry Chan of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia and Indonesia said that the corridor project will benefit the sultanate in two main ways. The first, he said, was in relation to the conservation of the country’s biodiversity, namely in the corridor component that will link Brunei’s Sungai Ingei Conservation Forest with the protected forest in Sarawak that will be further connected to the forest of Indonesia. “This well…

SEBERAPA pedulikah kita dengan alam persekitaran? Apa yang kita lakukan ketika melihat sampah di merata tempat? Adakah kita akan membantu membuangnya atau kita abaikan sahaja? Dan apa yang paling penting lagi adakah kita rajin untuk mengitar semula barangan tersebut? Ya, barangan bekas sebagai contoh tin minuman kosong, kertas, botol dan barang yang boleh di kitar semula. Tidak semua mengerti akan faedah dan kebaikan untuk kita mengapplikasikan tabiat kitar semula di dalam kehidupan kita sehari-hari. Bukan sahaja ianya boleh menjadikan persekitaran yang lebih sihat dan selesa, namun juga memupuk diri seseorang itu untuk lebih bertanggungjawab dalam memeduli persekitaran sekeliling dengan menjadi seseorang yang tidak camah mata. Apa yang sebenarnya menghalang seseorang itu untuk mengamalkan tabiat kitar semula di dalam kehidupan mereka terutama sekali para generasi belia kita? Walau sudah tersedia tempat…

LANDFILLS everywhere are rapidly filling up and the environment is increasingly affected in various ways as a result of this. It was stated in the Recycle 123 Handbook produced in 2015 by the Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation (JASTRe) under the Ministry of Development that approximately 400 to 500 tonnes of waste goes to the Sungai Paku landfill daily. In fact, it has been estimated that by the year 2025, that very landfill will be entirely filled. In the nation, the waste generation is around 1.4 kilogrammes per person per day, comprising 36 per cent food waste, 18 per cent paper and 16 per cent plastic. We are at a point where we know that there’s a problem and have identified the causes of the problem but the question…

ANOTHER round of the Green Leaders Camp organised by Green Brunei will be held for 18-to-25-year-olds this September. This is the fourth camp of its kind since its inception in 2014. Green Brunei’s president Khairunnisa Ash’ari said 35 youths are expected to participate in the camp in mid-September. She said the camp will enable participants to understand more about environmental issues in Brunei through talks, discussions and field trips. Agriculture has been chosen as the camp’s theme following recent news reports saying local farmers are not aware of the impact of climate change on agriculture. “Participants are expected to have a better understanding about the many issues and environmental challenges in this country. Through dialogues with non-government organisations, participants are expected to develop a stronger interest in taking part in…