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Singapore, a heartland for commerce and trade, has stood as an ex-

emplary among Southeast Asian nations in terms of economic growth.
However, with power comes responsibility, and Singapore must balance
its economic growth by nature conservation. The ecosystem in Singapore
is very diverse, ranging from natural to artificial habitats, land to marine
communities. It is up to the government to conserve this natural her-
itage for future generations to enjoy and utilise it either for recreational,
scientific, economic, or any other reasons. In recent years, nevertheless,
Singapore has managed its nature considerably well and may be a great
example in this area.
The first highlight is the underwater coral reef habitats: despite its
small area, corals in Singapore water are as diverse as those of other
neighbouring countries with larger coral expanse (Tan, Chou, Yeo, & Ng,
2007, p. 122). However, land reclamation, although tremendously bene-
fited the economy, has redefined the coastal lines and intruded the benthic
communities by crushing them physically and increasing water turbidity
(“Coral Reefs of Singapore”, n.d.). Nearly 20% of Singapore land is from
reclamation (Koh, 2005; Tan et al., 2007, p. 55), causing approximately
60% loss of coral reef habitats (Hilton & Manning, 1995).
To ameliorate this, the government has made significant efforts to en-
sure the persistence of coral reef habitats. One such notable move was the
$300,000 joint project of a national coral nursery by NParks, NUS, and
Keppel Corporation (Wong, 2007) that has been reported successful in
decelerating coral reef loss (Hiroshi, 2008). Another accomplishment was
Pulau Semakau: despite its landfill purposes, careful environmentally-
friendly planning enables proliferation of marine and coastal life such as
corals and mangroves (“Pulau Semakau on wildsingapore”, n.d.). A me-
dia also reports founding of Project Semakau, which further accentuated
government role in the island. The project aims to turn Pulau Semakau
to “nature education and conservation site” (“Project Semakau - Launch

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of Project Semakau”, 2008). For such a small country, this level of metic-
ulousness is amazing.
The endeavour to preserve underwater habitats bore its fruit: only one
species out of more than 250 coral species were found locally extinct in
Singapore waters (Kesava, 2008). This amount of diversity counts to about
a third of world total, even richer than that of The Great Barrier Reef of
Australia in terms of species per unit area (Davidson, Ng, & Ho, 2008)!
This suggests that although the size and number of coral colonies are
getting smaller, they can withstand the impacts of economic development,
highlighting the success of government balancing economic growth with
ecological issues.
The land reclamation, however, has another detrimental effect: it rede-
fines coastlines, destroying coastal communities within. The new coast-
lines are fortified with rigid structure to prevent erosion, rendering them
inhabitable to most coastal species. Singapore tends not to support the
coastal habitats; after all, reclamation is impossible without breaking
beaches. Trying to balance the situation, the government maintains at
least short coastal stretches in Labrador Nature Reserve and Chek Jawa
at Pulau Ubin. The latter location is still subject to further reclamation
scheme in the future as depicted by a mainstream media (Waters, 2007),
signifying how desperate the government is in looking for reclamation
sites. Work must be done to enlighten the government about the impor-
tance of pristine coastal habitats.
Our second focus is the government supervision of land vegetations
through NParks and related entities. At least 4 nature reserves (at Central
Catchment, Bukit Timah, Sungai Buloh, and Labrador), 2 national parks
(Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park), and 14 reservoirs
(Tan et al., 2007, pp. 135, 157) are present in Singapore. It thus shows the
government commitment on nature preservation; in such a small island
with bustling economy there can be that many areas of reserves.
However, we cannot simply dismiss the fact that Singapore was once
covered with forest, and only around 5% of it still exists in the form of
mentioned reserves (Brook, Sodhi, & Ng, 2003). How could Singapore

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be a model for nature conservation if she already lost about 95% of her
forest? Intriguingly, there is an answer to this argument: almost all of the
deforestation occurred within British government era. Singapore govern-
ment was not liable for the deforestation! Rather, the current government
attempts its best to conserve the 5% that is left, introducing pro-nature
regulations and providing financial support as necessitated by existing
parks and nature reserves. In essence, the government is giving back to
nature what it has gained by utilising the space cleared by deforestation.
The third feature is increasing public and academic awareness of nat-
ural assets. As more Singaporeans become more educated (education is
also part of government responsibility), they become more attentive to
ecological in addition to economic issues. This is especially important
as these people determines public policies or will someday become envi-
ronmentally conscious future leaders. A recent media report about Earth
Hour supported this trend as people exchanged productive hours with
spread of environmental awareness (Ouyang, 2009). In academic settings,
Singapore has recently updated its biodiversity bible The Singapore Red
Data Book (Ria, 2008; “Singapore Red Data Book Second Edition Out!”,
n.d.). A joint project of Nature Society (Singapore), NUS, and NParks,
the book catalogued biodiversity across the nation according to threat
level; such national reference is rare among countries, making Singapore
the exemplary in academia. It is also immensely useful in deciding fu-
ture environmental regulations; policy makers can refer to the book for
further impacts of policy against biodiversity.
We have seen that Singapore manages most of its natural heritage well,
with the exception of coastal communities. The elevation of public con-
sciousness about ecological issues has also been exposed. Considering all
these issues, Singapore may still become a great example in managing her
natural assets, although not perfect in every area. Any nations with sim-
ilar ecosystems should consider to model Singapore in pro-environment
policies and raising public environmental consciousness.

[976 words]

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