Nature Society chief aims to grow member numbers

Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 30 Aug 08;

IF MEMBERS of the Nature Society of Singapore (NSS) were classified like the plants and animals they are passionate about, they could well end up on the endangered species list.

In the last decade, the society's numbers have plummeted to about 1,200 from 2,000, because fewer young people are signing up.

A far cry from its heyday in the late 1980s. In 1989, it played a major role in saving the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve from redevelopment.

So the first job of the society's new chief, Dr Shawn Lum, will be to boost these numbers - he hopes even beyond its peak of 2,000 members.

'If Britain can have over a million members in its Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - that's one in 20 people there, I don't see why all green groups here can't grow or help each other grow,' said Dr Lum, 45, who became its president in May.

He plans to boost figures by casting its net wider, reaching out to heartlanders and companies keen on corporate social responsibility, he told The Straits Times, in his first interview as NSS president.

He took the post after eight years as vice-president to former nominated MP Dr Geh Min, and admits that he is a reluctant chief because of the big shoes he has had to fill.

'It was a walkover,' he said, noting no one else wanted the job.

'Dr Geh gave the society a close link to the Government. They were just a phone call away and they would listen,' said Dr Lum, a botanist with the National Institute of Education.

Dr Geh, an ophthalmologist, said however: 'Conservation is no longer the hot potato it once was, and it would be good to have scientific know-how that Dr Lum has after years of work in the field, to bring all groups closer together.'

Dr Lum also conceded that internal politics has become an issue, with factions forming within the society, but is not too worried about it.

'Disagreements are a natural thing which we needn't obsess over. Environmentalists are very passionate about nature and they can have different ideas of how to realise their vision of keeping the natural world secure,' he said.

Dr Lum said he will hear out all sides, and hopes to come up with solutions that everyone can agree on.

Former society president Professor Wee Yeow Chin, 71, who now runs a blog on bird ecology, worries that NSS is not attracting the next generation of members.

'We're oldies who have become complacent, not attracting the young, especially for leadership, who are very tech-savvy and who connect with each other on the Net,' he said.

Most of these younger groups are marine focused, Dr Lum noted. 'We can complement each other's work,' he said.

He also plans to get existing members to take on more active roles.

'Now fewer than 100 members actually go out and lead walks. I'd feel I've been a success if I see at least a third of our members getting their hands dirty by the end of my term,' he said.

He wants to rope them into active conservation work such as surveys of natural sites with researchers.

He added that the society is working with PUB, the national water agency, to adopt a piece of land the size of a football field bordering Kranji Reservoir.

'It's a bit of marsh which we hope to convert into an area that people can call their own, while they learn about freshwater swamp,' he said.

Dr Lum does not mind if the advocacy group works itself to extinction: 'Imagine that! We could revert to being primarily a hobby group because everyone in Singapore made nature a big part of their lives.'

Former NSS president Wee Yeow Chin and Vice-President Richard Hale have published an article on 'The Nature Society (Singapore) and the struggle to conserve Singapore's nature areas' in the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research's online journal, Nature In Singapore, which can be accessed on
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2008.php

Lifelong passion for nature
Straits Times 30 Aug 08;

DR SHAWN Lum, 45, first arrived in Singapore as a botany student from Hawaii in 1989, when he embarked on research at the National University of Singapore.

He joined the then-Singapore branch of the Malayan Nature Society and saw the advocacy group's strong lobby to make Sungei Buloh a nature reserve and to avert redevelopment plans that would destroy biodiversity.

He left briefly in 1993 to complete his doctoral thesis at the University of California in Berkeley, returning to make Singapore his home later that year.

Since then, he has been a lecturer and researcher with the National Institute of Education.

He has led the Nature Society of Singapore's plant group for over a decade and was elected vice-president of the society in 2000. Appointed president in May this year, he intends to spread his love for nature to the community in Singapore and the region.

Dr Lum, who is single, spends most of his spare time in nature.

He also supports green groups like the Jane Goodall Institute and the Blue Water Volunteers.

Related links

Nature Society: The struggle for Singapore’s nature areas
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog