Opening Remarks by Mr Desmond Lee, Minister For
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OPENING REMARKS BY MR DESMOND LEE, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT AND SECOND MINISTER FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT THE JGIS HUMAN-WILDLIFE CO-EXISTENCE IN ASIA CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2019, 9.15 AM Dr Jane Goodall UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute Dr Andie Ang President, Jane Goodall Institute Singapore Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen Good morning and a warm welcome to all of you, especially those who have joined us from overseas. 2 We are indeed very honoured to have the UN Messenger of Peace, Dr Jane Goodall, here with all of us. Dr Goodall visited Singapore two years ago, in 2017, for the 10th Anniversary of the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore). And before that, she also came in 2015. I’ve had the distinct privilege to host her on all three of her visits to Singapore, and to hear her share her invaluable life stories and experiences. 3 I’d like to thank the team at JGIS for organising this Conference – the first of its kind in our region – to discuss how we can better co-exist with native wildlife. 4 Human-wildlife interaction and conflict has been a feature throughout our tropical island’s history. Some of you may know that this is our Bicentennial year – 200 years since the arrival of the British. And in our Bicentennial year, we’ve had exhibitions and publications to take a closer look at our natural heritage and natural history. 5 Before 1819, historians recorded that Singapore was largely covered by tropical primary rainforest. When Sir Stamford Raffles first set foot on the bank of the Singapore River, the island he saw would have been blanketed with a dense primary 1 lowland jungle, with mangrove forests covering the coastal areas. The eastern slopes of what we now know as Fort Canning in central Singapore had groves of fruit trees, including durian, rambutan and pomelo – which were probably planted in the 14th century. 6 After the arrival of the British, and as Singapore grew as a trading port, large tracts of forest made way for agriculture and plantations for cash crops such as nutmeg, pepper and gambier. The prominent British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace described Singapore as a thriving town with vast tracts of jungle inland, interspersed with plantations for agriculture. 7 By the end of 1880, some 90 per cent of our primary rainforest had been cleared to make way for settlement and plantation. In fact, areas that we now associate with lush greenery, such as Thomson Nature Park, Rifle Range Nature Park, Chestnut Nature Park and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, were, at various times in our past plantations, prawn and fish farms, as well as villages and human settlement. They evolved over time, and in fact, in recent history, nature has begun to take root again. 8 Because of attacks on plantation workers back then, Malayan tigers which were native to Singapore were hunted to their extinction, with the last being slaughtered in the 1930. This is an early example of human-wildlife conflict in our early days as human settlement began to push out native wildlife. 9 Post-independence, our pioneers recognised the importance of greening Singapore, and from the start incorporated greenery into development in order to set us apart from other countries and cities in the world. 10 In 1963, our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew planted a Mempat tree at Farrer Circus. This marked the start of Singapore’s greening campaign. For the last 56 years, we continue to observe the annual Tree Planting Day to commemorate our tree planting efforts. This must continue because as each successive generation comes to the fore, we must be mindful that Singapore is green not because it was always green, but because of these pressures. Hence, we have to inculcate in our young the habit to plant trees. 2 11 In 1967, we launched a Garden City campaign, and in the same year, also set up a specialist Parks and Trees Division. To better oversee policies and coordinate activities for greening the whole island, we set up the Garden City Action Committee in 1970. In the 1970s and 1980s, the initial push was to green up the island with as many trees as possible in the shortest time – this was done to provide shade and soften the concrete landscape. 12 But today, we have evolved into being more than a Garden City. We are aspiring to be a City in a Garden, and we continue to green our city even as we continue to urbanise. 13 But making our city truly biophilic is a constant work-in-progress. Let me briefly share some of our strategies to green Singapore today, amidst tremendous urbanisation pressures. 14 Over the past few years, we have enhanced our nature parks, put in place plans to restore our secondary forests, and expanded our species recovery efforts. We continue to incorporate greenery into our long-term planning. We are also acutely aware of the existential threat of climate change, and will be turning to nature-based solutions to deal with sea-level rise and rising temperatures. 15 We can certainly do more, to be a leading biophilic city – a sustainable living environment that is both urban and green. But as we weave greenery more intensively into our cityscape, where people live, work and play, the challenge then becomes this: how can we co-exist with wildlife? 16 Indeed, human-wildlife conflict is not unique to Singapore. We regularly read about raccoons invading homes and urban spaces in US cities and Canada. In 2016, Toronto spent CA$31m on “racoon-resistant” bins, and reports are that results have been mixed. Hungry bears have been known to wander into urban spaces such as playgrounds, and break into vehicles across many cities in the US. In Colorado, I am told that there have been close to 5,000 incidents involving bears in 2019, including sightings in populated areas as well as home break-ins. In southern parts of Japan, 3 there are reports of wild boars in train stations, shopping centres, schools and parking areas. There have also been isolated incidents of wild boars attacking humans. 17 In these countries which are much larger than Singapore, nature areas are usually set far away from the core of the city. But in Singapore, greenery and nature are tightly integrated into our urban landscape. In fact, within a half an hour drive, we are in easy reach of four conserved eco-systems, such as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in the heart of the city, which are primary and secondary rainforest, the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve with mangrove and mudflats in the north, and Labrador Nature Reserve with rocky shores to the south. That shows how small Singapore is, and how precious these eco-systems are. 18 Homes fringe many of our nature areas, and Singaporeans live right next to our urban or nature parks, and even our nature reserves. Living this close to nature also means that we have to expect the frequency of human-wildlife interaction and conflict to be much higher. 19 For example, wild boars had been spotted roaming around our housing estates. They are usually not aggressive, but there have been one or two incidents of wild boars attacking humans in recent years. We also continue to receive feedback about long-tailed macaques entering homes in search of food, and there was even one incident of a girl who was bitten by an otter. 20 Which is why the theme for this Conference – “Human-Wildlife Co-existence in Asia: Conflicts and Mitigation” is particularly apt. This allows us to see how we can tackle conflict issues using a science-based approach, and at the same time, consider community-centric solutions as well. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but we can all learn from each other and explore how various strategies can be adapted to our own contexts. Science-based Approach to Animal Management 21 In Singapore, a science-based approach seeks to underscore our animal management strategies. This helps us design more targeted, effective interventions to 4 mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. For example, the long-tailed macaque is one of our most commonly seen wildlife neighbours. NParks is collaborating with primatologists, veterinarians and other scientists to better understand the population dynamics and health of these animals. 22 Studies have shown that the macaque population in Singapore is stable, with most of them dwelling in our rainforests. Some troops are also seen in parks in residential neighbourhoods like Yishun and Admiralty in the north. But macaques are known to prefer living at the forest fringe – this means that they often are near urban areas, increasing the instances of human-wildlife interaction, and conflict. My colleagues in the National Parks Board (NParks) have placed GPS collars on some adult macaques to help us better understand their behaviour and movement patterns. This data shows us where macaques are venturing into residential areas, and enables NParks to focus on enhancing management efforts at these typical hot spots. 23 Our science-based approach also informs our strategies to conserve and protect our native biodiversity, to mitigate the impact of human activity on the survival of wildlife. In addition to macaques, the critically endangered Raffles Banded Langur and Sunda Slow Loris are other examples of our native primate species. Their population numbers are much smaller than macaques. But reforestation and enrichment planting have improved the habitats for the Raffles Banded Langur, and the current population stands at around 60 individuals.