It’s not a secret that there’s a lot of forest clearing and pollution in South-east Asia, annually around 0.7% of forest is lost. Of course this influences the rich biodiversity negatively. The area has a predicted loss of 42% of animal populations by the end of this century, more than a half of these extinctions will signify global extinctions.

Forest clearing – Source: Synchronicity Earth

A big problem is that extinction rates are not very well documented in the tropical countries of South-East Asia. The most reports are hearsay or based on guesswork of how many species can sustain in the declining fragmented forests. However one country has a long tradition of biodiversity research, that country is named Singapore. It is blessed with comprehensive lists of species collected by both British and Singaporean biologists. Since Singapore’s environment used to be somewhat similar to surrounding countries, the Singaporean extinction rate data can fill the gap that other countries have. Actually this is what many researchers already write in their articles they make extinction rate predictions of other countries based on Singaporean data.

Singapore has already experienced deforestation and urbanisation, so it can operate as an example for those other countries. If land degradation in South-east Asia continues Singapore could function as a microcosm of what may happen to the other countries. If this really is the case, then the future prospects look bleak for the tropical countries. Since the future prospects for Singapore’s biodiversity are neither good, 77% of the species are threatened. We are doomed if this will happen to the whole area, because it will influence complete ecosystems.

‘The future prospects for Singapore’s biodiversity are neither good, 77% of the species are threatened’

Luckily Singapore has a lot of environmental knowledge and the country is making a good effort on conservation. For example researchers discovered in Singapore that alien species not always have negative effect on native tropical flora. And that extinction of flora species because of habitat fragmentation takes a very long time. So maybe Singapore can also operate as an example for the other countries by sharing their knowledge of conservation.