VZCZCXRO8501
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHBD #0351/01 3460728
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 120728Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4026
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS COLL
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0034
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0441
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0134
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0045
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0519
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000351 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP, AND OES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAID PREL BX
SUBJECT: HEART OF BORNEO: BRUNEIAN IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 
 
REF: A. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 156 (NOTAL) 
¶B. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 228 
 
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SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  Brunei has completed its draft Project Implementation 
Framework (PIF) for the Heart of Borneo (HOB) forest 
conservation initiative, meant to serve as a national 
roadmap for HOB implementation.  It recommends expanding 
the HOB zone to 74 percent of Brunei's land area, divided 
into forest preserves and areas of carefully managed and 
sustainable economic activity.  The PIF defines 
objectives and strategies for the HOB in Brunei and 
recommends that 36 specific "interventions" be undertaken 
over ten years at an estimated cost of USDOLS 6.5 
million.  To manage these activities, the Government of 
Brunei (GOB) plans to establish a National HOB Centre 
that will operate as a public-private partnership with 
half of HOB funding derived from the private sector.  The 
draft PIF represents a genuine commitment by the GOB to 
begin turning the HOB vision into reality, but will mean 
little without concomitant progress by the much larger 
HOB partners Malaysia and Indonesia.  Embassy recommends 
that any USG support for the GOB's HOB efforts be 
targeted at activities that are multilateral in nature or 
produce outcomes transferable to other parts of Borneo. 
End Comment. 
 
-------------------- 
STAKEHOLDERS MEETING 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  On December 6 Brunei's HOB National Steering 
Committee hosted a stakeholders meeting to discuss the 
draft final report on the Project Implementation 
Framework for the HOB in Brunei.  The report was prepared 
by Dato Mikaail Kavanagh, a partner in the Malaysian firm 
ERE Consulting and former Executive Director of World 
Wildlife Fund Malaysia, under a grant from Brunei Shell 
Petroleum (BSP).  Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary 
Resources Dato Hamdillah bin Haji Abdul Wahab chaired the 
meeting.  In addition to some sixty government officers 
and the Managing Directors of BSP and its sister company 
Brunei LNG, Chiefs of Mission from the UK, Malaysia, 
Japan, and Singapore attended, as did an officer from the 
Indonesian Embassy.  Ambassador Skodon represented the 
U.S. 
 
----------------------- 
TOTAL HOB AREA EXPANDED 
----------------------- 
 
¶3.  The PIF draft argues that Brunei, despite its small 
size relative to HOB partners Indonesia and Malaysia, can 
make a uniquely important contribution to the HOB because 
its hydrocarbon wealth has limited the need to exploit 
its forest assets and because it offers the opportunity 
to connect the highland forests of Borneo to the 
mangroves and other coastal forests on Brunei's South 
China Sea coast.  It also points out, however, that 
Brunei faces a large task in developing the legal 
framework, administrative structures, and expertise 
required for sustainable management of its tropical 
forests.  (We have requested a complete text of the 120 
page report to pouch to EAP/MTS.) 
 
¶4.  The draft PIF recommends that the total area devoted 
to the HOB within Brunei be increased to 426,554 
hectares, more than 20 percent over the initial 
projection and approximately 74 percent of Brunei's total 
land area.  Dato Kavanagh stressed that this entire zone 
would not be "locked away" from human use.  To the 
contrary, although the HOB would have to be carefully 
managed in a sustainable fashion, the initiative could 
not be successful unless it proved to be economically 
viable and compatible with ongoing productive activities. 
Accordingly, the draft PIF divides Brunei's HOB territory 
into existing protected areas where only low-impact 
activities such as research and eco-tourism would be 
permitted (approximately 90,000 hectares), proposed new 
protected areas (about 16,000 hectares), and areas for 
sustainable forestry, forest rehabilitation, and closely 
 
BANDAR SER 00000351  002 OF 004 
 
 
managed human use (settlements, agriculture, sand mining, 
and oil and gas extraction). 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
HOB OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, AND "INTERVENTIONS" 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5.  The draft PIF proposed the following five objectives 
for the HOB in Brunei: 
 
-- conserve representative forest and freshwater habitats 
as well as the biological diversity therein; 
 
-- contribute to economic diversification by developing 
non-timber use of forests, particularly tourism, 
biotechnology, and other innovative means; 
 
-- set out an integrated framework for sustainable forest 
use; 
 
-- re-establish forest connectivity and greening of 
degraded areas through reforestation and rehabilitation; 
and, 
 
-- build public support for HOB and general conservation 
awareness. 
 
¶6.  In order to achieve these objectives, the PIF draft 
proposes the following four strategies, each of which is 
buttressed by recommended actions, or "interventions:" 
 
-- Strategy 1:  Conservation.  Unique biological 
resources of the HOB shall be conserved and used with due 
consideration for long-term sustainability of ecosystems, 
focusing on strengthening the protected area network, 
transboundary cooperation and improving management 
capacity. 
 
-- Strategy 2:  Tourism Development.  Tourism in the HOB 
shall be enhanced through development of niche nature 
tourism products and joint tourism promotion with the 
other Bornean countries, with the scale of development 
taking into account environmental and cultural 
sensitivities. 
 
-- Strategy 3:  Management of Non-Renewable Resources. 
Development of such resources (extraction of sand, coal, 
oil, and gas) shall be carried out in a manner that 
imposes minimal impacts on the environment and protects 
the integrity of forest connectivity. 
 
-- Strategy 4:  Outreach.  Continuous environmental 
education and awareness, with focus on community outreach 
programs, shall be promoted to ensure the sustainability 
of the HOB. 
 
¶7.  The 36 "interventions" that the draft PIF proposes to 
implement these strategies range from the very specific 
("Gazette Belait peat swamp as a forest preserve") to the 
vaguely hopeful ("Initiate discussion with 
Sarawak/Malaysia on integrated management of Brunei 
Bay").  They include practical measures to fill the gaps 
in Brunei's capacity for environmental protection, 
including establishment of a "Department of Biodiversity 
Protection and National Parks" or "National Wildlife 
Agency" to concentrate responsibilities now spread 
throughout the government, and creation of an 
Environmental Impact Assessment process for major 
projects within the HOB area.  Their implementation is to 
be spread out over nine years at a total estimated cost 
of BDOLS 9.4 million (approx USDOLS 6.5 million), 
beginning with an expenditure of BDOLS 650 thousand 
(USDOLS 450 thousand) in 2008. 
 
------------------------ 
HOB MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK 
------------------------ 
 
¶8.  There was considerable discussion at the stakeholders 
meeting about a national management framework for the 
HOB.  After the full cabinet and Sultan approve the PIF, 
the GOB hopes to set up an HOB National Council to 
provide overall policy guidance and coordination, chaired 
by the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources and 
 
BANDAR SER 00000351  003 OF 004 
 
 
including other government agencies as well as NGO's and 
private sector representatives.  Additionally, an Interim 
Coordination Unit with a staff of five and an estimated 
two-year budget of BDOLS 1.6 million (USDOLS 1.1 million) 
will be established no later than the next trilateral HOB 
coordination meeting in April of 2008. 
 
¶9.  The Interim Coordination Unit is to serve as the 
acting National HOB Secretariat and will coordinate 
planning for a National HOB Centre which is expected to 
take over management of the HOB in Brunei by 2010.   That 
organization will probably be split between an executive 
office in Bandar Seri Begawan and a training and wildlife 
breeding center within Brunei's HOB area, possibly co- 
located with the planned National Tropical Biodiversity 
Centre. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
FUNDING VIA PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  Dato Hamdillah emphasized that the GOB hopes to 
continue implementing the HOB as a public-private 
partnership.  The operation of the projected national HOB 
Centre may be contracted out to a private entity or NGO, 
which would operate under the policy guidance provided by 
the HOB National Council and draw from a GOB-managed 
trust fund for project financing.  He expressed the hope 
that the cost of that center and of the interventions 
specified in the draft PIF could be split 50-50 between 
the GOB and private sector donors.  The draft PIF even 
proposes the establishment of funding levels that would 
entitle private companies to be designated as Bronze, 
Silver, Gold, or Platinum HOB donors, with Platinum 
donors being given a seat on the National Steering 
Committee and later the HOB National Council. 
 
¶11.  The draft PIF names several foreign research 
institutions as supporters of individual "interventions," 
including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center and 
Harvard University.  A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 
Trade representative who attended the stakeholders 
meeting stated that Brunei should look for international 
governmental donors as well.  He claimed that some such 
prospective donors were constrained from providing funds 
to Brunei because it had not yet signed the Convention on 
Biological Diversity, but that the GOB hoped to rectify 
this situation by signing the CBD in 2008. 
 
¶12.  Ambassador noted that some potential governmental 
donors might also face constraints in providing funds to 
a country with a per capita income as high as Brunei's. 
He recommended that, whenever possible, Brunei seek to 
involve HOB partners Malaysia and Indonesia in the 
implementation of its proposed "interventions," both to 
increase the effectiveness of such actions and to ease 
the path for donors who might find it easier to support 
multilateral projects involving those countries. 
 
-------------------------- 
COMMENT AND RECOMMENDATION 
-------------------------- 
 
¶13.  As previously reported, the HOB has captured the 
public imagination in Brunei.  The GOB is responding to 
that enthusiasm with what appears to be a genuine effort 
to put some meat on the bones of the original HOB vision. 
Its goal of having private donors meet half the projected 
funding needs is attainable, since the large companies 
that operate in Brunei's hydrocarbon sector will gain 
considerable public relations benefits from supporting 
this visible and popular environmental initiative. 
 
¶14.  Less encouragingly, the GOB seems to have dropped 
for now any mention of a trilateral secretariat in Brunei 
to coordinate HOB activity Borneo-wide, due to 
differences with Malaysia and Indonesia about whether 
and/or where such a secretariat should be established 
(ref B).  Even if the objectives set out in the draft 
national PIF become reality -- not a given -- it will 
matter little unless Brunei's much larger Bornean 
neighbors undertake successful HOB efforts of their own. 
Embassy recommends that the USG focus on supporting those 
PIF "interventions" that are multilateral in nature 
 
BANDAR SER 00000351  004 OF 004 
 
 
and/or produce outcomes that could be applicable in 
Malaysia or Indonesia as well.  END COMMENT. 
SKODON