Last week I had the great pleasure to attend a talk by Guest Speaker Benjamin Lee from the National Parks Board. I would like to share with you guys about the National Parks Board, it’s approaches to conservation, and how it tackles some of the challenges that they currently face. National Parks Board main’s function and responsibilities is to enhance the Greenery in Singapore and to create a “City in a Garden”.
Areas that they focus on:
- Establishing well-renowned gardens: Gardens by the Bay is their most recent installment.
- Rejuvenate urban parks and the street landscapes: Building park connectors and Canopy covers alongside the roads.
- Optimize urban spaces and recreation: Green terraces for HDBs and carparks.
- Enriching Biodiversity: Protection of nature reserves.
- Reaching out to the community
Singapore’s Topology
Singapore has two types of protected areas.
- 4 Nature reserves which are protected by policies. These policies are key to legally protecting important ingenious creatures in Singapore.
- 2 National Parks Fort Canning Park & Botanic Gardens. Protected by legislation. Need permission by Parliament to proclaim an area as a natural reserve where protection is needed.
- Urban Parks: Not protected at all and are created for CBD areas and HDB flats.
Overview of Singapore’s Biodiversity
Biodiversity in Singapore can be preserved for:
- Ecological services: Producing oxygen, retaining carbon dioxide, providing shade and shelter during the hot climates. Providing a more relaxing ambiance to the hectic lifestyle of Singaporeans.
- Leisure, cultural , and aesthetic value: A lot of Singaporeans use these parks to exercise and for other activities.
- National pride and heritage
- Economic edge like having programs such as the Singapore index on Cities’ Biodiversity. A program that measures biodiversity in cities and highlights how biodiversity conservation efforts can be improved. It was formulated by the NParks in cooperation with United Nations (UN).
When British founded Singapore it was completely inhabited with rain-forest (1812). 1882, 7% of original forest remained due to housing development and agricultural growth. Singapore is known as the “worst case scenario”.
But despite this catastrophe, new species are still found frequently among Singapore’s biodiversity:
- 100 new species new to science such as the endemic freshwater crabs, which are found nowhere else in the world.
Protection of Biodiversity
In order to protect biodiversity: Legislation to protect our biodiversity
- Planning Act (URA)
- National Parks Board Act 2005
- State Lands Act
- Various multi-lateral environmental agreements
Challenges in Biodiversity Conservation
- Habitat Fragmentation: When you fragment the habitats of different species, you decrease in genetic variation due to decreased gene flow. Most habitats in Singapore are segmented by highways and roads.-Possible outcomes: disease and extinction
- Military uses areas in the Bukit Timah Reserve
- Human-wildlife Conflict: wildlife becomes victims of road kills
- Climate Change: Profound effect on wildlife
Solutions
- Proactive management teams that are knowledgeable, passionate, and who empathize with the situation.
- Creating signboards
- Closure of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve: Very critical condition due to soil erosion. “Victim of it’s own success”.
- Habitat restorations
- How to fragment the nature reserves? Ecological bridges
- Land use planning: A green formula. Per thousand people a portion of area reserved.
- Research collaboration with universities, NGOs, and government organizations.
- Conservation education & outreach to the public
Final Thoughts:
- Marine conservation: Moving towards conservation of marine life rather then on land.
- Need to create parks that are biodiversity friendly.