I guess it’s true for most freelancers, but I am beginning to feel a lot like the White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland constantly behind schedule, forever racing from one place to the next and all the while muttering to myself – I’m late, I’m late….
Excuse for the sporadic nature of these posts over with, it has actually been an incredibly interesting and rewarding few weeks. I’ve had opportunities to talk to a leading expert of conserving global bird migration routes, have a Zoom call with the head of a company that grows real chicken meat in a lab and interview a top conservation scientist (and MP) about the challenges and the very real benefits of employing nature-based solutions such as reforestation to help tackle climate change.
All those conversations were super illuminating and I promise to write more about all of them in the near future once the related stories come out and/or I actually get chance to look at my notes.
In the meantime, this round up sees me going on patrol in a Singapore forest, highlights the ongoing discussion about Singapore’s green spaces, details a clear call for action to tackle climate change and ends with some positive conservation stories.
Jungle walks
One highlight from the last few weeks was finding some time to jump on a bumboat and head across to the island of Pula Ubin to take part in a forest patrol with Singapore’s National Parks.
The experience was part of the organisation’s volunteer program, which I signed up for at the start of the year, and saw me join two National Park guides and four other volunteers on a patrol through a section of forest in the northern part of the island.
For the unversed, Palau Ubin is an island located off the northeast coast of Singapore. It’s become a popular day trip destination thanks to its relative lack of development and an extensive network of walking and cycle trails . These gravel, dirt and tarmac tracks take you past disused quarries, patches of tropical forest, mangrove swamps, tidal mudflats and a few small kampungs (villages) which are still home to around 32 families.
"Straw-headed Bulbul" by Michael Khor is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The fact that it has been pretty much untouched since the “quarries” closed in the 1960s mean it is also home to a wealth of wildlife, many of it not really found in the rest of the country. It was the first place that saw the return of Oriental Pied Hornbills in Singapore and is also home to populations of endangered species such as the straw-headed bulbul and the lesser false vampire bat.
We got to encounter both of those while out on the patrol, the bulbul’s strident warbles a constant accompaniment and the latter spied roosting in a makeshift bat cave, whose location and structure I can’t say any more about due to their critically endangered status.
According to our guide Grace, the aim of the monthly patrol is to conduct a general check of an area and ensure there are no signs of illegal activity, such as animal snares or bird traps. While that initially conjured up images of us chasing would-be poachers through thick vegetation the reality was a rather leisurely two-hour stroll through old rubber plantations and tropical woodland as the guides (and other volunteers) pointed out interesting natural features, such as giant anthills, mushroom clusters and different native species of plants.
We also managed to learn a bit more about the local communities that lived and still live on the island (the driver of our shuttle bus was born and raised on the island) as well as catching a glimpse of the Ubin’s healthy wild boar and long-tailed macaque populations.
While we didn’t come across any traps, we did at least manage to make some sort of difference by clearing a bin-liner full of rubbish. However, a little like the tree-planting scheme I took part in a few months back, I did get the feeling that this was more about winning hearts and minds in the wider community than making any significant contributions to their conservation efforts.
Still, I am certainly not complaining it was really nice to meet and learn from like-minded people and it was great to wander off the normal paths (obviously I got to put the disclaimer in of don’t do this unsupervised!). Work permitting, I’ll definitely look to sign up again to future patrols (they happen once a month on Ubin) as well as keep my eye out for the boat patrol which takes you on a tour around the whole perimeter of the island.
One of the old kampung dwellings that can still be found on the island.
The National Parks do also need volunteers for everything from crowd control on St John’s Island to bird and insect surveys in some of the mainland nature parks, so there’s lot to potentially interest amateur naturalists who want to help. You can visit here for more information about what’s involved and how to enrol, though things are a little bit wonky at the moment because of Covid.
Even if you’re not interested in volunteering with National Parks, they do also run a number of regular tours that explore some of Ubin’s cultural and environmental highlights including a visit to the important conservation site Chek Jawa Wetlands.
For my next volunteer session I’ve signed up for something that promises to be a little bit more hands on – helping remove invasive species like the batman plant in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Obviously I will report back on how it went in a future post.
Forest fight
Photo of Dover Forest courtesy of Sydney Cheong
From the protected forests of Palau Ubin to the ongoing debate about what to do with some of the less-official wilderness areas of Singapore. I’ve already discussed some of the conversations going on around this issue and you may have seen me post links to petitions supporting the protection of different green spaces around the island such as Clementi Forest.
Recently the main focus of this conversation has switched to Dover Forest (also known as the Ulu Pandan Estate), an area of secondary forest located in central Singapore which has been earmarked for residential redevelopment.
Petitions have been raised and reams of editorial have been written about this case, with particular kudos to local resident Sydney Cheong who started this petition you can still sign and the Nature Society Singapore (NSS) who really helped raise awareness and drive people to comment on the original Housing Development Board environmental study.
Proposal from Nature Society Singapore to turn Dover Forest into a public-nature park.
If you can do read the NSS’s detailed response to the original HDB report in which they propose turning the space into a nature park. Some of the key takeaways from that response are the fact that the 33-hectare space is home to 158 species of animals, including the endangered Changeable Hawk-Eagle, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Oriental Magpie Robin and Asian Softshell Turtle, as well as 120 plant species, including a critically endangered type of fig tree. They also highlighted the role it plays in helping contribute to the resilience of nearby forested areas such as the Green Corridor and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
"Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrot (Loriculus galgulus)" by Lip Kee is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The good news is that the very vocal response from conservationists and the general public has now led to the issue being raised in parliament this week (Feb 1) and the government extending the time for members of the public to give their feedback on the plans until March 1.
Of course, there’s no guarantee they will change their mind, but it is further evidence that there is a growing green movement in Singapore, a movement that’s definitely been bolstered by the pandemic. As Singaporeans have had more time and inclination to explore the greener parts of their island. It’s also hopefully further evidence that the government are increasingly willing to listen to calls to better balance the needs of development with environmental and conservation issues. It’s difficult for me to comment because a) I am not Singaporean, b) not an urban planner and c) not a trained conservationist. However, having spent the last year wandering around wealthy housing estates there does seem that there’s maybe more ‘space’ on the island that could be exploited than you might think.
Climate Crisis Consensus
A quick one on climate change, and news of a global poll that saw 64% of respondents agreeing that it is indeed a “global emergency”. While it would obviously be better if that number was higher, it demonstrates that a majority of the world now realise the state the planet is in and sends a clear message to politicians that they have a mandate to act now to tackle this very real threat.
I think the most positive thing about the results (if that’s the right way of putting it) is the scale and breadth of the shared opinion. The survey conducted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Oxford University between October and December 2020, interviewed over 1.2 million people from 50 high-, middle- and low-income countries.
The survey found that there weren’t huge differences in opinion between younger and older generations (69% of under-18s compared to 58% of over-60s), genders or even educational levels. In fact, even the country with the lowest proportion of climate change believers Moldova still registered 50%, while big fossil fuel polluters Russia and USA scored 65%. Singapore (or Malaysia) weren’t covered in the survey but overall 63% of respondents in the Asia Pacific region (which included Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia) also agreed that we need to act now.
"Mangroves" by Brisbane City Council is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The survey findings also identified the most popular climate policies to tackle the issue with Conservation of forests and land (54% support), Solar, wind and renewable power (53%); Climate-friendly farming techniques (52%); and Investing more in green businesses and jobs (50%) listed as the top four. As I said at the start of this post I will definitely be writing more on natural climate based solutions soon.
The full report is packed with details and also highlights some interesting differences in opinions between countries, and (hopefully) should be mandatory reading for governments and policy makers ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference due to take place in Glasgow in November this year.
On the back of Joe Biden and his team bringing the USA back into the Paris Agreement its’ yet another hopeful sign that action might be possible. And in case you hadn’t realised quite how potentially significant the regime change stateside is for the environment and climate change here’s a round up of all the relevant executive orders signed by Joe Biden in his first seven days in office.
Good news, news
"Eurasian lynx in winter coat" by Tom Bech is licensed under CC BY 2.0
"Common Crane pair in flight" by Lip Kee is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
To wrap up some quick hit good news stories: First up plans to reintroduce the European Lynx back into the wild in the UK after a mere 500-odd years. This is very much early days of the plan, which must first overcome stiff opposition from farmers and garner enough public support to take it to the next stage, but it would be turly amazing to see these beautiful creatures roaming wild in the Cairngorms one day.
There’s also a story detailing how common crane populations have grown significantly in the UK since their reintroduction in 1979. From just five pairs in 2000 last year saw a total of 64 pairs present in various wetlands of which, up to 56 attempted to breed and fledged 23 young.
And to end, a simply joyous video of a panda playing in the snow at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington. Maybe there’s hope for 2021 yet…