Alice Chia Channel NewsAsia 8 Apr 13;
The Singapore Botanic Gardens was chosen for submission as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it fulfills the criteria of having outstanding universal value, said Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong.
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) was chosen for submission as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it fulfills the criteria of having outstanding universal value, and the gardens have made important contributions to the region and the world.
Speaking in Parliament, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong said rubber seeds grown in the garden propelled the growth of the rubber industry, and the development of Singapore from a fishing village to one of the world's busiest ports in the 20th century.
Nominated MP Janice Koh had asked if there was any "public engagement" or communication" in the lead-up to the nomination.
In reply, Mr Wong said the decision to nominate the gardens was based on a study commissioned by the then Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts, and was done in consultation with experts, academics and other stakeholders.
Mr Wong said: "There was indeed consultation done, in the lead-up to even identifying the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was not the only site that was highlighted as a possibility. There were a few sites considered at that time. There were different views and people had actually expressed their views.
"In fact, if you'll just google 'Singapore Botanic Gardens', which I did incidentally because I was curious what happened in the past, you will find people talking about the listing of the Singapore Botanic Gardens way back in 2009 and 2010. So it's there, on public record."
According to the National Heritage Board (NHB), the 154-year-old Gardens fulfils two criteria to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was a site for experiments on crops such as rubber and orchid hybrids, that shaped Singapore's economic development.
It also has rich historical value as a British colonial garden, integrating English landscape style and buildings with the local terrain.
A feasibility study was commissioned in 2010 by the then-Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, at a cost of S$30,000.
The study identified potential sites that could fulfill UNESCO's criteria as World Heritage Sites. Other sites such as Haw Par Villa, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the former Ford Factory, were considered.
NHB and SBG are currently working together on the bid and have hired a consultant to put together a nomination dossier, including a site management plan, by February 2014.
Upon submission of the nomination documents, experts from one of UNESCO's advisory bodies will carry out site assessments and study the dossier before making their recommendations. This process takes about a year.
The World Heritage Committee will then meet around June 2015 to vote on the nomination, with some 1,600 sites currently being considered. They may approve it, defer it pending further information, or reject the nomination.
Jean Wee, the director of the preservation of monuments board at the NHB, said: "I think what's very very critical will be the site management plan. We have to assure UNESCO that as a state party, we are responsible and we will do everything that we can to make sure that this, as a protected site, will have a sustainable management plan."
Tan Wee Cheng of the Singapore Heritage Society felt that there would be many positives should the SBG get UNESCO heritage status.
"That would enhance our sense of national pride and national identity. In fact, as studies have shown elsewhere in the world, when you have a UNESCO World Heritage Site, people also become more civic-conscious.
"It means that Singapore now has a new brand name. It enhances our soft power. Now, soft power goes beyond just tourism revenue. It means that people are more interested in dealing with you, in emulating you, in associating themselves with you."
Some members of the community hope that it will open up more conservation opportunities.
"We are also thinking that the periphery areas of the central catchment area, such as Bukit Brown -- they are important sites because they are not under any protection," said Assistant Professor Lai Chee Kien of the department of architecture at the National University of Singapore.
"The Singapore Nature Society as well as the Singapore Heritage Society, they have collectively determined that it is a site worthy of conservation of both natural heritage as well as historical cultural heritage."
In the months ahead, there will be a series of public engagement sessions, where the nomination document and management plan will be shared with heritage and environmental groups, as well as the public.
Poon Hong Yuen, CEO of NParks, said: "The public's support is very important in the inscription process. It means that we will do a lot of consultation in various forms, it could be focus groups discussions, it could be exhibitions, even just talking to schools to get the school children's support."
- CNA/ac
Botanic Gardens could be World Heritage Site by 2015: NParks
Eugene Neubronner Today Online 8 Apr 13;
SINGAPORE – The Singapore Botanic Gardens could be the country’s first World Heritage Site by as early as June 2015, if the nomination is accepted by the UNESCO.
Dr Nigel Taylor, the garden's Director, however noted that this would happen only if everything goes Singapore's way. Other countries, he added, did not succeed at their first try. So it might take multiple tries while the UNESCO committee would likely ask for further background or work to be done before giving the green light.
The subject also received a hearing in Parliament today, with Nominated Member of Parliament Associate Prof Eugene Tan Kheng Boon asking why there had been “a rather long silence” since the idea was first floated in 2010. Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong replied that there was “no certainty” that Singapore would be able to obtain the tentative listing.
With the listing official, Mr Wong added, efforts would be ramped up for the formal submission – expected to be by February next year.
During a media briefing today, National Monuments Board Director Jean Wee rejected suggestions that the bid is being done to garner more tourists, instead saying it would help “foster national pride”.
Giving more information about the process to list the garden as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites (WHS), the National Parks Board (NParks) said that the Botanic Gardens was identified as the best shot due to meeting two of the 10 criteria’s from UNESCO – Exhibiting an exchange of human values on developments in landscape design, and as an outstanding example of landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history.
NParks said the Botanic Gardens has “continued and close association with scientific plant research … And (it) has had a fundamental influence on the economic and social development … Of the region.” It is also “a site of multi-cultural interchange in the development” of Singapore.
It is also a unique exemplar of the British colonial tropical botanic gardens Its different stages of development since 1859 are also preserved in its “historic English landscape style, layout, use of local topography, natural forest and buildings”.
These two points were why the Gardens trumped other sites – such as Haw Par Villa and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve to be the only submission in December last year.
This is considered an important first step, as without the list, the World Heritage Committee will not consider the nomination.
Meanwhile, a series of public engagement sessions will be conducted where the nomination document and management plans would be shared with stakeholders such as heritage and environment groups, and members of the public.
This will tie in with the opening of a new museum at Holttum Hall on the garden grounds later this year.
There are only two other botanical gardens listed as protected World Heritage Sites worldwide – The Botanical Garden of Padua in Italy and Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom.
Singapore’s Botanic Gardens saw 4.4 million visits last year. There are currently 1579 tentative listed sites from 171 state parties on UNESCO’s list.
A museum to tell story of Botanic Gardens
Due to open in Nov, it will showcase the gardens' 154-year-long history
Grace Chua Straits Times 9 Apr 13;
GENERATIONS of Singaporeans have sat on the low-slung branch of a tembusu tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, or proposed to their spouses there.
Their accounts could go into a museum that the Botanic Gardens is building to showcase its 154-year history.
It is due to open in November at the gardens' Holttum Hall.
Though planned before 2010, the museum could help the gardens' bid to be listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, said the National Parks Board (NParks) and National Heritage Board (NHB).
The gardens, however, was not the only place picked initially for the Unesco bid.
Yesterday, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong disclosed in Parliament that sites shortlisted in 2010 included the Civic District, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Haw Par Villa and the former Ford Factory in Upper Bukit Timah Road where the British surrendered to the Japanese in 1942 during World War II.
But the historic gardens was picked for its economic and cultural significance, he said in a reply to Nominated MPs Eugene Tan, Janice Koh and Faizah Jamal.
They had asked how Singapore selected and studied the site.
The gardens was set up as a pleasure garden in 1859, and coffee, rubber and oil palm cultivated there in the late 1800s spread through the region to contribute to South-east Asia's economies.
Unesco World Heritage sites are cultural or natural sites that have been deemed to have outstanding universal value. There are 962 such sites worldwide. South-east Asia's 33 sites include Angkor in Cambodia, and Malacca and George Town in Malaysia.
Last December, the Botanic Gardens was put on Singapore's tentative list, a requirement before a site can be submitted to the World Heritage Committee for consideration.
Before the formal nomination, a process of public engagement will take place between August and December this year.
People will be asked for their feedback through talks, exhibitions and other avenues.
Singapore will formally nominate the gardens next February.
If successful, it may receive World Heritage status as early as June 2015, said an NParks spokesman. An NHB spokesman said the process can, however, take as long as 10 years because if it is not successful, the gardens will stay on the tentative list and be nominated again with a beefed-up application.
