Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia will convene a two-day Second Tri-Lateral Meeting of the "Heart of Borneo" in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, beginning today, Bernama reported.
The meeting was a follow up to the first HoB (Heart of Borneo) Tri-Lateral Meeting in Brunei from July 18 to 20 last year, the Indonesian forestry ministry said in a statement.
The Second Tri-Lateral Meeting will discuss a Strategic Plan of Action of the HoB, which is expected to become a basic guideline for conservation and sustainable development programmes to be conducted by the three countries on Borneo Island or Kalimantan Island, which is shared by the three neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.
Previously, the three countries had issued a Bali Declaration, recommending the drafting of National Project Document for the implementation of the HoB at national and local levels.
Under the HoB scheme, the three countries have agreed to carry out cooperation programmes on trans-boundary management, protected areas management, sustainable natural resource management and sustainable financing.
The Pontianak meeting is expected to agree on the establishment of an HoB institution which would be responsible for the implementation of HoB programmes. The "Heart of Borneo" conservation plan is an initiative intended to protect biodiversity by preserving 220,000 square kilometres of equatorial rainforest on the Borneo Island.
The area protected by the project, launched in March 2006 at a United Nations biodiversity conference in Brazil, covers parts of the territories of the three nations, from the highlands along the Indonesian-Malaysian border into low-lying areas of Brunei.
According to the WWF, the forests of the HoB are some of the most biologically-diverse habitats on Earth, possessing staggeringly high numbers of unique plant and animal species.
The Heart of Borneo`s forest area is one of the only two places on Earth where orangutans, elephants and rhinoceros still co-exist and where forests are currently large enough to maintain viable populations.
The Heart of Borneo presents a unique opportunity to conserve pristine tropical rainforest on a huge scale - almost 30 per cent of the world`s third largest island, WWF reported.
Source: www.brudirect.com (4 April 2008)