A long tailed macaque pondering the future

So as the end of the year gallops towards us this is realistically the last of my scattergun conservation-focused posts I’ll get up this year. Of course a lot has happened since the start of 2020, not least the creation of this website, and while it’s not always felt that way, there’s definitely been some positives to come out of the pandemic. On a personal level, there’s been a chance to do more writing – always a struggle when editing everyone else’s work – and a chance to pursue an interest in conservation that was always there but one I never really seemed to have the time to commit too fully.

The optimist in me feels that 2020 has also seen a shift in attitudes towards the environment and the pressing need to protect it going forward. Most importantly that shift is not just from the general public but from higher up the chain, in terms of the thinking of governments and big business – the places were a change in attitudes really needs to take place. Of course this is partly down to necessity, partly a move to appease customers and partly a move to cash in on the ‘green’ economy but at this stage I guess it doesn’t really matter what the motivation is, as long as it helps to bring about some real change.

It might just be naïveté on my part but I guess I will cling to it as long as I can. And on that note this final collection of news and comments tries to have a distinctly positive outlook. From a conservation-focused organisation in Singapore to new green corridors on the island to tales of turkeys and trees, I hope you enjoy this mixed bag of pre-holiday stories.

Conserving investments

First up an interesting, and potentially very positive piece of news, as this month saw an agreement between Temasek Investment company and Mandai Park Holdings (MPH) - the people behind the Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Bird Park and Night Safari - to create Mandai Nature, a new non-profit organisation aimed at advancing efforts in nature conservation and climate change mitigation in the region.

For the uninitiated Temasek is a major Singapore government-owned investment company with some serious global clout (they were valued at around SG$300 billion in March 2020) so to have them put some money behind this is a big deal.

Continuing the theme from my introduction, I believe that it’s another sign that we are at a tipping point when it comes to conservation. Big business is realising that tackling these issues is no longer a choice but a necessity and it’s something the Singapore government is clearly taking seriously. A fact outlined by Shaun Seow, Managing Director of Community Stewardship at Temasek:

“Climate change and the loss of biodiversity are pressing issues affecting all of our lives, we think it is timely to establish Mandai Nature, in partnership with MPH, to drive nature-based sustainability in Singapore and beyond.”

Free the Bears is one of the conservation groups supported by Mandai Park Holdings

Whatever your opinion on whether zoos are a good thing or not, there’s no arguing against the fact that MPH have made a serious commitment to conservation in the region over the past decade. I’ve already written about a couple of the conservation projects they support in the region, including Free the Bears and the Raffles Banded Langur Working Group, and the hope is that this partnership will help give them the funding to expand the reach of this work still further.

While MPH’s previous work has mostly focused on species protection, the new organisation has a broader mandate to work with conservation groups and local experts to also tackle better community engagement and habitat protection. The organisation will be headed up by Kavita Prakash-Mani, former Global Conservation Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in New York, who announced the strategic aims for Mandai Nature:

“Working with local organisations and local communities, we aim to build a bottom-up approach to conservation that contributes to mitigating climate change, enables wildlife and people to thrive and co-exist, and values the ecosystem services provided by habitats such as forests, wetlands, peatlands, mangroves and more,” said Prakash-Mani.

At the moment specific details are pretty scarce but I’ve been told that more developments in Quarter 2 of 2021. I am particularly keen to see what specific projects they will be involved in on the ground, so fingers-crossed I’ll post an update here when I know more.

Green connections

A map showing the locations of the new parks, photo courtesy of National Parks.

Elsewhere in Singapore there were further additions to the island’s green spaces, with the announcement of two upcoming nature parks in the Bukit Batok area in the west of the island. Coming in at 8.9ha Bukit Batok Hillside Nature Park is set to open in 2024, while Bukit Batok Central Nature Park will cover 16ha but has no confirmed date to open so far. Both areas are set to be sensitively developed to remain rustic and forested to ensure they support native flora and fauna.

Along with Bukit Gombak Park, which opens next year, these new green spaces will form part of the Bukit Batok Nature Corridor, which aims to connect the remains of Tengah forest in the east with the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve in the middle of the island. When it’s complete the corridor will cover over 125ha of nature parks and 10km of trails.

The news was announced at the beginning of the month by the Minister for National Development Desmond Lee who pointed out that the parks would "act as key stepping stones within the existing network of green spaces.”

It’s particularly good news regarding Bukit Batok Hillside Nature Park, as government plans had originally earmarked this area for residential development. Indeed, local conservationists had previously raised concerns over future plans for the space, even going so far as to raise a petition for its protection along with other greenfield sites such as Clementi Forest.

Of course, it’s always going to be a balancing act between conservation and development on an island with as little spare land as Singapore. Still, conserving these green corridors is essential if we want to ensure sustainable wildlife populations and avoid isolated reserves, which I’ve seen described as ‘sinking life boats’ because they are unsustainable in the long term. The issue of the government’s future plans for these unprotected wild spaces is something I hope to dig into in a bit more detail in the New Year, so like the first story it’s definitely another case of ‘watch this space.’

Man vs Wild

The dilemmas around retaining and even rewilding green spaces is something I already touched on in this recent story for A Magazine. The piece saw me spend a day with the Wildlife Rescue Team from the amazing ACRES: Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Singapore), a charitable organisation dedicated to protecting Singapore’s diverse population of wild animals.

As well as looking at their important work (which you can read more about here) it was particularly interesting to consider what the government’s bold plans for a ‘City in Nature’ really mean for a potential increase animal v human conflict in the future?

As Acres's deputy chief executive Kalai Vanan put it “Are Singaporeans ready to accept nature as it is or are we only willing to accept butterflies, songbirds and dragonflies?”

That’s definitely a question that’s going to come up more and more often in the next few years. Indeed it is already being asked in some parts of Singapore such as Pasir Ris where the government recently undertook a survey of residents to gauge their attitude towards wild animals. This follows an incident where a resident was knocked down and injured by a wild boar. Despite that incident it was pretty heartening to see that the majority of locals seemed happy to continue sharing the space with their wild neighbours.

Long may that continue.

Good News, News

Finally, as we near the end of the year, I thought I would finish with some links to some positive news stories I’ve read over the last month or so.

We start with a couple of items relating to ongoing efforts to reintroduce wild beavers back into England. In August, there was the good news that a family of wild beavers had been given legal permission to remain living on the River Otter (the irony is strong) after a successful five year trial found that they have a positive impact on the environment. Then, this month saw the National Trust announce that a family of beavers which had been introduced to one of their estates in South West England earlier this year had constructed the first dam in Exmoor for over 400 years. The National Trust project is part of their wider Riverlands Programme aimed at restoring some of the UK’s most precious waterways through sensitive rewilding programmes. According to previous reports, beavers play a big role in that regeneration through their ability to create viable eco-systems for other wildlife.

Elsewhere, there was a beautiful story on how trees communicate with each other (and across tree species) through underground networks of fungi in the NY Times and a surprisingly touching piece about a man who tried to live as a wild turkey in the Guardian.

And talk of turkey seems an apt time to finish this post, though you might think twice about having it for Christmas dinner after reading the above story. Happy holidays to all, wherever you are and whatever crazy Covid-restrictions you’re celebrating under. Stay safe and well and see you in 2021.