HSBC-funded research will assess how climate change has affected biodiversity here
Tessa Wong, Straits Times 13 Dec 07;
THE National Parks Board (NParks) will launch a study early next year to gauge the effects of global warming on Singapore's wildlife, officials said yesterday.
'There have been a lot of changes to our climate in the last 15 years,' said Ms Sharon Chan, NParks' assistant director of central nature reserves.
'What we want to know is, with all these changes, what has the impact been like on our biodiversity?'
The three-year effort will see volunteers cataloguing animals and plants in the country's nature reserves. The findings will be compared to data gathered in 1992 and 1997.
NParks plans to use the results to evaluate how successful it has been in taking care of Singapore's nature reserves and wildlife.
The study will be sponsored by HSBC to the tune of $300,000.
Yesterday, the chief executive officer of the bank's Singapore office, Mr Guy Harvey-Samuel, handed over a $100,000 cheque at a ranger station in MacRitchie Reservoir.
The money will be used to kick-start the first year of the programme. Funding for the programme's second and third years will be raised later, according to HSBC.
Half of the $100,000 presented yesterday was raised in the bank's Green Sale held in June. The drive saw HSBC donate $2.80 for certain banking transactions and 28 cents for every online fund transfer and every customer who made the switch to Internet banking.
Referring to climate change as 'the biggest challenge' faced by mankind, Mr Harvey-Samuel said: 'I'm tremendously excited that HSBC can be involved with this sort of thing...Anything we can do to bring the importance (of saving the environment) to the forefront is valuable.'
Ms Chan, who conducted the first study in the 1990s, will be leading the new study as well.
NParks will oversee the project, while Six National Youth Achievement Award Youth Leaders and HSBC staff participating in its Green Volunteers programme will assist in data collection.
