Under the Canopy - celebrating 30 years of research in Brunei

To commemorate 30 years of research, the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre (KBFSC) in Brunei has released a book titled "Belalong: Under the Canopy".

This book features a contribution from Newcastle University researchers Natasha Mannion and Phil McGowan. Natasha spoke to us about her experiences at KBFSC, from developing research to achieving major milestones and making the KBFSC her second home.

Contents:

1. Thirty years of the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre
2. My experience of Brunei
3. "Belalong: Under the Canopy"

Thirty years of the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre

Brunei is a small country on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, considered to be a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Nestled in the unspoiled tropical forests of Brunei Darussalam, in the Green Jewel of Brunei: Ulu Temburong National Park is the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre (KBFSC), which celebrated 30 years since its establishment in 2024.

Video from the Royal Geographic Society about the Brunei Rainforest Project

To mark this significant anniversary, Univeristi Brunei Darussalam has released "Belalong: Under the Canopy" describing the history and achievements of the centre. The book includes a contribution from Newcastle University researchers Professor Phil McGowan, Professor Marion Pfeifer, and myself.

My experience of Brunei

In January 2022, I travelled over 11,000 km to Brunei Darussalam, navigating COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns to conduct fieldwork for my PhD. This centred around deploying camera traps to monitor mammal populations in the forests of the Temburong district, and how they may be affected by roads and other infrastructure pressure. To gather baseline data from an area with as little impact from roads as possible, I ventured to KBFSC.

The field studies centre can only be reached by river, so we hopped into traditional boats called temuais departing from the nearest village, Batang Duri, to make the journey into Ulu Temburong National Park. My team made several trips here, navigating the steeply sloping forest trails to deploy camera traps. We obtained many interesting records including clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), pangolin (Manis javanica), and banded linsang (Prionodon linsang). Some of the images captured here are featured in “Belalong: Under the Canopy”.

1 A photograph of a clouded leopard, taken on one of the camera traps in Ulu Temburong National Park.

2 A photograph of a pangolin, taken on one of the camera traps in Ulu Temburong National Park.

3 A photograph of a banded linsang, taken on one of the camera traps in Ulu Temburong National Park.

4 PhD students Natasha Mannion (left) and Rebekah Puttick (right) outside Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre.

5 Natasha Mannion conducting a vegetation survey in Ulu Temburong National Park, near KBFSC.

6 Temuais (longboats) used to access KBFSC by river.

Being based at KBFSC was one of the most rewarding parts of my PhD: conducting research surrounded by undisturbed tropical rainforest, spotting gibbons while measuring vegetation, and getting to scale the canopy tower up to the treetops.

Evidently many other researchers have felt similarly as shown by the numerous accounts of a wide range of scientific research conducted at KBFSC included in “Belalong: Under the Canopy”. Prof McGowan, Prof Pfeifer and I are thrilled to be able to showcase Newcastle’s research in Brunei through this book.

Belalong: Under the Canopy

In our section of “Belalong: Under the Canopy”, Prof McGowan writes about an early study into the calls of great argus (Argusianus argus), a pheasant species with magnificent feathers and interesting courtship behaviour. We also discuss other joint projects between Newcastle University and Universiti Brunei Darussalam over the years, including Dr Laura Braunholtz’s camera trapping work, and my ongoing PhD research.

Our work, and all the work described in this book, contributes to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (e.g. SDG15 Life on Land), and the Global Biodiversity Framework’s goals and targets. We encourage you to take a look at the beautiful photographs encapsulating Ulu Temburong’s natural beauty and wealth of biodiversity and read about the interesting and important research undertaken by one of Newcastle’s international partners: Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

You might also like:

• read the study: Research and Management of the Batu Apoi Forest Reserve, Temburong, Brunei: The Universiti Brunei Darussalam/Royal Geographical Society Rainforest Project 1991/92, Earl of Cranbrook (1993), https://www.jstor.org/stable/2997775
• read an online flipbook version of "Belalong: Under the Canopy"
• learn more about the researchers involved in this study:
  • Natasha Mannion, PhD student
  • Professor Phil McGowan, Professor of Conservation Science and Policy
  • Professor Marion Pfeifer, Professor of Forest Landscape Restoration
  • Dr Laura Braunholtz, Postdoctoral Researcher
• find out more about the research from our School of Natural and Environmental Sciences