UNDER the Ramsar Convention, around 200 million hectares of the global wetland areas have been protected and recognised as the world’s most fragile yet most productive ecosystem, which provides a range of benefits for the well-being of people.

Of these areas of wetland worldwide, the 8th Regional Level Workshop for Wetland Managers in East and Southeast Asia shared that most of the wetland areas comprised of water bodies with mudflats with some parts grown by water vegetation, and not forested wetland.

At the forum – held in Suncheon City on October 10-15 – the Suncheon City-based Ramsar and Ramsar Regional Centre – East Asia (RRC-EA) was amazed with Brunei’s peat swamp forests (PSF) and mangroves – potential waterfowl habitats at Brunei Bay.

This makes the PSF in Brunei potentially a site for international ecotourism, and sharing the country’s most valuable assets at the relevant regional and international fora may profile these national assets and gain better recognition.

For instance, the Suncheon Bay in South Korea – one of the biggest protected wetlands branded as a Ramsar site – comprising mudflats covered by marsh, attracts four million tourists per year.

A scenic view from Suncheon Bay in South Korea, one of the global biggest wetlands managed by the Suncheon City Governance mainly for both ecological and economic benefits.

In view of PSF’s critical conditions and its rarity on the planet, the PSF in Brunei has attracted the attention of the global scientist communities and international visitors, mainly to experience and learn about the world’s remaining pristine forested peatland ecosystems.

Among the lessons learnt from the experience of Ramsar Contracting Parties was that the destruction of wetland is irreparable and will incur a great loss of highly valuable ecosystem services. In the national context, this means both the forest ecosystem and the dominant tree species – Shorea Albida (‘Alan Batu’) and Agathis Borneensis (‘Tulong’) – within Brunei’s PSF becoming critically endangered.

Environmentally, aside from having a high carbon biomass content, the PSF also provides a great barrier to separating the sea water from inland fresh water in the upstream of the Belait River. It also raises Belait District above the sea level with its continuous formation of peat layer (peat bog) from the forest stands.

More importantly, PSF contains bio-products that are – with further study and exploration – future biotechnology industrial assets. A few species of plant have been identified traditionally by the local communities for their herbal values.

In view of its emerging global recognition and being a high potential site for international ecotourism, it is timely that all existing threats to the PSF should be ceased.

These threats include forest fires, illegal sporadic and small-scale agriculture activities, improved drainage at the coastal side of the PSF and licensed logging activities at the interior part of the PSF.