Saving the great white hope

This will hopefully be the year when wildlife conservation gets taken seriously
Joyce Hooi, Business Times 1 Mar 10;

'In Singapore, there is surprising scope for species conservation. Some of the seagrass beds and coral reefs are small in size but they're way up there - top of the range,' said Geoffrey Davison, chairperson of the WRSCF specialist panel.

IF energy conservation is the lead on today's stage of hot-button issues, wildlife conservation is an understudy waiting in the wings.

Even though 2010 has been designated the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations, its furry-panda association places it in danger of being taken less seriously than carbon emissions and dwindling oil supplies.

Amid all this, an alliance has been forged between Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), Wildlife Conservation Society Singapore and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The incongruity of the concrete-jungle setting for WRS and WCS aside, both wildlife groups have placed their faith firmly in science and education where overcoming hurdles are concerned.

The memorandum of understanding they signed recently will see them share technical expertise and work on increasing public education and awareness.

'What we can offer in this alliance is that when our governments or host nations are faced with a really powerful question, like how to save sea turtles, we can answer that authoritatively,' said Steven Sanderson, president and chief executive officer of WCS, at a recent roundtable discussion in Singapore.

'The provider of the facts does not have vested interests, like a university or WCS, and tends to be an objective observer. That's what we're about,' said Ward Woods, WCS chairman.

WRS, which is the parent company of Jurong Bird Park, the Night Safari and the Singapore Zoo, is also headed down the anorak path of knowledge through its fledgeling fund: the WRSCF (WRS Conservation Fund) - founded in 2009.

'Zoos are still seen as places to play and look like animals. We're trying to move it from viewing to learning, and then towards researching and understanding the impacts on biodiversity,' said Claire Chiang, Banyan Tree's senior vice-president and chairperson of WRS and WRSCF.

Currently, WCS has 500 ongoing projects and 24 landscapes that it is intensively involved in conserving.

Funding and knowledge, however, appear to be the least of the conservation effort's problems.

There is the issue of labyrinthian government whose left hand is in disagreement with its right hand, for one thing.

'First, you've got to get a hearing and the people in power have to care about what you are saying,' said Mr Sanderson.

'Sometimes, the same government will have two different attitudes, depending on the agency. The United States is quite famous for this, where the Department of Interior wants information on bison and the Department of Agriculture that co-regulates bison doesn't want it.'

While Singapore may not be the home where the buffalo roam, the stakes for conservation, nonetheless, exist.

'In Singapore, there is surprising scope for species conservation. Some of the seagrass beds and coral reefs are small in size but they're way up there - top of the range,' said Geoffrey Davison, chairperson of the WRSCF specialist panel.

In Singapore, while WRS may be able to leverage some corporate muscle off its main shareholder, Temasek Holdings, wildlife conservation remains relatively low on the corporate and political agenda globally.

'It was very upsetting to get the draft report of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010 targets. At the end of 2009, the convention announced that none of the 2010 targets had been met,' said Mr Sanderson.

The situation is starker on a regional basis. Lacking a corporate incentive or a catchy phrase like 'cap-and-trade', conservation groups are a ragtag bunch with disparate ideas.

There are plant-based efforts, marine-life interest groups and associations zeroing in on coral reefs. And then there is the mind-boggling array of depths of discussion, from species-specific to policy-based themes.

Emerging from this discordant chaos, the alliance hopes to be the championing voice of reason.

'I would like to think that we could be part of the thought leadership. We may not want to tell them what to do, but by having conferences and workshops with the scientific community and other groups, we could influence them,' said Ms Chiang.

Already, some effort to give wildlife conservation the boardroom sheen of energy conservation is surfacing.

At the roundtable, phrases like 'sustainable growth models', 'network capital' and 'centre for excellence' were used in the same breath as 'Irrawaddy dolphins' and 'gorillas in Congo'.

Even if governments are receptive, corporations are politely interested and conservation groups are better organised, this effort could still be undone by poor timing.

Ms Chiang remembered organising an energy conference on climate change in 2000, a long time before the issue had even become one. 'It fell flat,' she recalled.

Whether the present is premature for wildlife issues is adjacent to the point for conservation, where WRS and WCS are concerned.

'A la Singapore, we're very good at having dialogues. We get all the parties at the table and we talk and talk and talk. It's the stamina to sustain the talking,' Ms Chiang noted wryly. 'It may take years. But if we don't keep that passion going, nothing moves.'