Brunei joins conservation efforts for forests and ecosystems

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

At the United Nations Conference on Climate Change's 26th Session, Brunei, along with more than 110 other countries, endorsed the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use (COP26).

Brunei has joined the effort to conserve forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, facilitate trade and development policies that do not drive deforestation and land degradation, reduce vulnerability, build resilience and enhance rural livelihoods, implement sustainable agriculture, and accelerate the transition to a resilient economy that advances forest, sustainable land use, biodiversity, and climate goals, among other things, by endorsing the declaration.

 

With a two-day World Leaders Summit attended by over 120 world leaders, the United Kingdom, as host and president of the COP26, officially opened the event.

On November 2, a Forests and Land Use Event (FLU) was organised as part of the summit, with the goal of reaffirming global commitments to protect forests and reverse deforestation.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo spoke at the occasion.
Prince Charles was also present for the ceremony.

Brunei has a forest cover of 72 percent, with the ability to absorb around 13.9 MtCO2e of CO2e yearly.

 

The sultanate will continue to protect its natural rainforests by increasing forest reserves from 41 to 55 percent of total land area, as well as planting 500,000 new trees by 2035 to increase the country's carbon sink.

Minister of Foreign Affairs II Awang Erywan Mohd Yusof, as representative of Asean chair for 2021, and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy Azhar Yahya, as Brunei's executive committee chair on climate change, represented Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's administration at the World Leaders Summit.

 

World leaders emphasised the critical and interdependent roles of all types of forests, biodiversity, and sustainable land use in enabling the world to meet its sustainable development goals, to help achieve a balance between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removal by sinks, to adapt to climate change, and to maintain other ecosystem services in the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use.