BruDirect.com 16 Aug 10;
Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei is looking to develop a national biodiversity index as an evaluation and monitoring tool for its conservation policy in its quest to become one of the world's most liveable cities, the deputy director of Forestry Department said.
The index can be applied to a specific locality such as Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) or a city and other districts in a broader application, said Mahmud Yussof in an email.
"With the current biogeographical conditions of the country, the implementation of the index will not be a problem especially for BSB, as a stepping board to lift BSB's rank as the most liveable city in the world in the near future."
The deputy director made the remarks after attending the Second Expert Workshop on the Development of the City Biodiversity Index in Singapore last month.
The formulation of the index, which is under the Convention on Biological Diversity, is one of the strategic efforts in reducing global biodiversity loss, he said, adding that Singapore was tasked to lead the experts on the development of the index.
The workshop was aimed to develop a city biodiversity index to assist national governments and local authorities in benchmarking biodiversity conservation efforts in the urban context, help evaluate progress in reducing the rate of biodiversity loss in urban ecosystems and help measure the ecological footprint of cities.
The workshop discussed ways to improve the index prepared by the expert group, based on the testbedding from participating cities and to present the documents at the upcoming Tenth Session of the Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan.
Based on the experiences of the participating cities, the workshop has identified the problems of practicality and operational definitions of the current index, especially the indicators, scoring methodology, the definitions of specific terminology, inter-agencies issues, and political implications.
Currently, 17 cities worldwide are testing the index a tool for biodiversity conservation and monitoring.
Mahmud said Singapore would assist Brunei on the test-bedding, including the data procurement to enhance national capacity.
"This information will be provided to the Municipal Board and other relevant agencies to be incorporated into the BSB Masterplan."
"The quality of biodiversity is very much dependent on the extent of natural, semi-natural area and forests, the protection of ecosystem services and wildlife population or selected wildlife species within the city harmonised with infrastructural development," he added. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times
