Kuala Belalong Field Study Centre (KBFSC), Brunei
- June - November 2014
- Kuala Belalong Field Study Centre Field Campaign
Brunei has a rich heritage of permanent forest plots which were established in the early 1990’s and continually monitored through the last two decades. Lan Qie is currently conducting a systematic re-census of a number of long-term plots in Brunei as part of her Southeast Asia field campaign, supported by T-FORCES. During her first field trip between 30 June and 17 Jul 2014 at Kuala Belalong Field Study Centre (KBFSC), she re-measured three 1-ha plots which were last measured in 2011 by a team led by Dr Radim Hedl (Czech Academy of Sciences). During the second trip, Lan Qie recensused the 1-ha Aarhus Plot now part of the 25-ha CTFS plot at Belalong, and led a camping trip up Bukit Belalong to measure a series of altitudinal plots set up by Dr Colin Pendry (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and the late Prof John Proctor in 1991 (another location of John’s legacy). Next Lan Qie will work in several other plots in western Brunei and give a talk at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) on Oct 29th. The work is being carried out in collaboration with Dr Kamariah Abu Salim, Dr Rahayu Sukmaria Sukri and Dr Faizah Metali, FOS, UBU. Many thanks to Ms Rafizah Mat Serudia from UBD for sharing plot data from her MSc work. (p.s. Lan Qie’s field assistants in Brunei consisted mainly of Iban women, especially the wonderfully capable and fit Sawai and her mom, Balula, who is in her 50’s!).