Destruction of Biodiversity in Singapore

Singapore used to be a green country with forest covering the entire state. However, what is left now is but a fraction of its past glory. Here is a picture of what Singapore used to look like.

Here is what it looks like now:

This big contrast is due to the extremely high deforestation rates, a alarming 95% of the low land forests, resulting in only a 0.04% of natural forest remaining. (Castelletta, Thiollay & Sodhi, 2005) With the destruction of so much forested areas, the amount of biodiversity left in Singapore is very limited.  There are many reasons for the deforestation in Singapore, the current one is the building of HDB flats to accommodate the large amount of people residing in Singapore. Singapore is ranked one of the top countries in terms of population density at around 7,257 per square kilometers. Overpopulation has caused us to lose our forests and nature to housing.  As we build our houses closer to nature, we risk creating many other factors, one of which is the human-animal conflict. Animals, upon interaction with humans would create a disruption of their lifestyle, something which is usually irreversible.


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