International Seminar on Tropical Forest Conservation : seminar proceedings / International Seminar on tropical Forest Conservation & Japan International Cooperation Agency [JICA]

Includes tables

Includes bibliographical references

The Government of Brunei Darussalam, in cooperation with the Government of Japan, jointly organised an International Seminar on Tropical Forest Conservation, which was held from the 11th-14th October 1999, in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.

Tropical forest conservation in the South-east Asian region has become a global focus in the light of recent widespread deforestation in some critical areas. In many cases, this has been the unfortunate result of some haphazard rapid infrastructural and other economic development, whereby environmental considerations were not given their due priority. Although there has been much talk lately on the subject of "sustainable management" of tropical forests in the region, its actual appreciation and effective implementation are slow in coming.

It is considered apt that the subject of tropical forest conservation be examined to evaluate its current status. This is to see how far the issue has been looked into and developed. The recent El Nino weather phenomenon, which saw widespread forest fire episodes (and their aftermath the very severe haze episodes) affecting many parts of the region, is a timely wake-up call to many of us. The unexpectedly extensive areas involved proved to be beyond the capability of any one single country to handle, and serve as a reminder to us of our inadequacies in dealing with problems of regional in scope. On a regional scale, there is also apparent weakness in the enforcement aspect of certain regional policies.

Much work on tropical forest conservation has been done, but they tend to deal with issues and studies at the "micro" level, such as detailed biodiversity research or localised ecosystem research at the national level, i.e., within a particular political boundary. The subject of forest conservation and management on a regional scale has somehow been less emphasised. One outcome of the recent environmental upheaval is the new found sentiment for formulating relevant measures and acting upon them at the regional level.

Six Keynote Papers and nine Country Reports were presented during the 4-day seminar. The Papers/Reports are enclosed in this Proceeding.