VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBD #0497/01 2710821
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 280821Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3545
INFO RUEHKL/AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR 0633
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0313
RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 0021
RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO 0021
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0485
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0092

UNCLAS BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000497 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ETRD SENV ID MY BX
SUBJECT: HEART OF BORNEO: UPDATE ON BRUNEIAN VIEWS 
 
REF: BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 361 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY:  The Government of Brunei (GOB) remains solidly 
behind the Heart of Borneo (HOB) project, a WWF initiative that aims 
to establish a tropical forest conservation area consisting of 
85,000 square miles of contiguous protected zones across the three 
countries that share the world's third biggest island.  The GOB is 
prepared to place 61.3 percent of Brunei's land area under HOB 
protection, but only if Malaysia, Indonesia, and their local 
governments on Borneo establish and enforce their own protection 
zones.  The Bruneians have become more optimistic that the Malaysian 
states of Sabah and Sarawak will do so, but remain concerned about 
Indonesian provincial authorities given their lack of resources and 
other priorities.  The GOB has offered its comments on an Indonesian 
draft of a leaders declaration establishing the HOB and hopes it 
will be issued at the December ASEAN Summit; it has proposed 
establishment of a rotating HOB Secretariat once the declaration is 
issued, and offered to serve as initial host country.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Ambassador met GOB Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary 
Resources Dato Hamdillah on September 27 to get an update on GOB 
support for the HOB.  Hamdillah confirmed that Brunei remains 
solidly behind the initiative.  Against the backdrop of the seasonal 
"haze" that has dropped visibility in some parts of Brunei to under 
two miles -- actually smoke from land-clearing forest fires, 
primarily in the Indonesian portion of Borneo -- Hamdillah argued 
that this was a national security issue for the GOB, since 
developments within the HOB area had a direct impact on the sources 
of Brunei's fresh water and on its air quality. 
 
¶3.  (U) Hamdillah briefed the Ambassador on the results of an HOB 
national workshop held in Brunei earlier this year under the 
sponsorship of the GOB, UK High Commission, Brunei Shell Petroleum 
and HSBC Bank.  At the workshop, the GOB decided that it could place 
61.3 percent of Brunei's total land area of 2,228 square miles under 
HOB protection: 267 square miles of national parks and protected 
forests, 557 square miles of production forest lying between these 
areas, plus another 541 square miles of rattan and bamboo 
plantations, logged-over forest, and peat swamp and coastal forests 
running down to the South China Sea coast in western Brunei.  This 
was consistent with the National Forestry Policy of maintaining 
forest coverage over at least 55 percent of Brunei and the current 
level of approximately 70 percent forest coverage.  Economic 
activities such as oil exploration and production could take place 
in parts of this area, but only under strict environmental 
guidelines. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Hamdillah repeated his earlier assertion (reftel) that the 
GOB would not finalize its declaration of an HOB protection zone 
until the other participants -- Malaysia plus its states of Sabah 
and Sarawak, and Indonesia and its province of East Kalimantan -- 
were ready to do the same.  The HOB was a single ecosystem, and 
there was no point in Brunei trying to protect its small slice of it 
in isolation from the rest.  Unlike his earlier view, however, 
Hamdillah now believed that Sabah and Sarawak were serious about 
putting into place the necessary legal protections and enforcement 
mechanisms.  He was more concerned about Indonesia.  Although there 
was growing support in Jakarta, provincial government officials had 
limited resources and other pressing problems such as the lack of 
economic development to address.  Hamdillah had heard that the WWF 
representative in Jakarta might be leaving his post soon, and 
worried that the departure of this champion for HOB could further 
set back efforts to win Indonesian support. 
 
¶5.  (U) Hamdillah was focused on the issuance of a joint HOB 
Declaration by the leaders of the three countries who shared the 
island as the next necessary step toward turning the HOB vision into 
reality.  He believed that only such a joint declaration could 
provide the political impetus needed at this stage of the HOB 
project.  The Indonesian government had done a first draft of a 
declaration, the GOB had offered its edits at the workshop earlier 
this year, and Hamdillah hoped the Malaysian government would do the 
same at a national workshop it was hosting.  The GOB would push for 
the final declaration to be signed at the ASEAN summit in December. 
The GOB had also proposed that once the Declaration was issued, an 
HOB Secretariat be established that would rotate between each of the 
three participating countries, but always on the island of Borneo 
itself.  The GOB had offered to serve as the initial host nation. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Asked what would be the GOB's biggest problem in 
implementing its HOB obligations, Hamdillah replied without 
hesitation "people."  The staff members of GOB forestry and 
conservation agencies were not uniformly sold on the need for 
conservation, and those that were did not have the training they 
needed.  Close supervision and additional training would be required 
if the HOB was to be a success. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Hamdillah repeated his earlier expression of gratitude for 
the USG contribution of USDOLS 100 thousand to HOB, but shared his 
worry that certain of his (unnamed) counterparts from Malaysia and 
Indonesia were drawing the wrong conclusion from the USG 
contribution.  He had heard grumbling that if USDOLS 100 thousand 
was all the world's only superpower saw fit to contribute to HOB, 
then it could not be a very high priority for Washington. 
Ambassador asked Hamdillah to stress to his counterparts that the 
importance of our contribution was not just the amount provided, but 
also the signal of USG interest and the ability of our contribution 
to leverage additional action by other donors. 
 
 
SKODON