BSP's hornbill nests in Panaga
By Liza Mohd
BSP MD Dr Grahaeme Henderson speaking at the ceremony.
The installation of the artificial nest boxes for the hornbills in the BSP residential areas
of Panaga Seria.
Belait District Officer with environmentally conscious members at the installation of
artificial nest boxes ceremony yesterday morning. - PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANDREA
BLOEM
Four artificial nest boxes were installed in different locations in the BSP residential areas of Panaga
Seria yesterday morning, to provide additional nesting sites for around 80 hornbills which have chosen
residence in close proximity to residents and oil and gas activities.
Fully-funded by BSP, the nest boxes aims to increase the likelihood of the hornbills breeding and hopes
for long term knowledge and understanding about the breeding behaviour and special requirements of
the hornbills.
The efforts were carried out by environmentally-conscious members of the Panaga Natural History
Society, the Biology Department of University of Brunei Darussalam and Brunei Shell Petroleum
(BSP).
Speaking at a ceremony yesterday, Dr Grahaeme Henderson, Managing Director of BSP, said the
company has extended this work to a range of environmental activities to help make a positive
difference to a wider Bruneian community and which includes the research centre in Temburong
National Park, scientific research studies at the University of Brunei Darussalam, study on underwater
ecosystem at our offshore oil installations, and the Princess Rashidah Young Nature Scientist Award or
PRYNSA.
BSP is also active participating in the Heart of Borneo trans-national biodiversity initiative, having
sponsored an implementation study and planted trees as part of the Million Trees Project.
He added that the hornbill nest box is a key part of its work and their experts stated that this should be
seen as a long-term initiative as the hornbills have to get accustomed to their new homes.
Similar experiments have been carried out in Thailand and Singapore and have proven successful and
thus BSP hopes that the Panaga hornbills will respond in the same way as their specie in these countries.
This puts Brunei among the list of few countries in the world to have embarked on this type of
experiment with artificial nesting sites for hornbills, the BSP Managing Director noted.
The hornbills in Panaga belong to the Oriental Pied group and are a significant colony as the hornbill
population elsewhere in Borneo is dwindling in the face of various threats.
Based on an initial idea by Dr Joe Charles of UBD's Department of Biology, the experiment with
artificial nesting sites is quite rare and one of the few being carried out in the world at the moment. Their
natural nest is made in tree cavity, usually about two to 50 metres above the ground.
The installation of hornbill nest ceremony took place at the BSP Managing Director's official residence
at Forty-Nine Panaga and was attended by Belait District Officer Haji Mohamad bin Haji Abd Rahman.