The Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Research (IBER), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) held a community outreach programme in collaboration with a local non governmental organisation, Biodiversity and Natural History Society (BruWILD), on Friday.
The main objective of the activity was to allow participants, comprising children and young adults, to get up close with ferns, learn their morphology and appreciate their uses and unique properties, a programme facilitated by local and international fern experts.
The outreach programme included a sharing session on ferns and a series of hand-on activities such as viewing the plants with microscope. IBER and BruWILD aim to increase awareness on ferns through activities as they are not very well-known especially in the younger generation, despite having many benefits to people’s livelihood.
In addition, over the years, some populations of ferns have been found to decline in number.
Thus, through awareness, it is hoped that these plants can be preserved for future generations.
IBER continues to conduct biodiversity research, education and conservation activities on local flora and fauna of the Sultanate.
It is via the initiatives and efforts that the research and conservation of these unique flora will continue to progress and contribute towards achieving the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, said IBER.
