Public consultations begin on Botanic Gardens World Heritage Site bid

Channel NewsAsia 11 Sep 13;

SINGAPORE: Singapore's National Heritage Board (NHB) and National Parks Board (NParks) have invited the public to provide their feedback on Singapore's bid for the Singapore Botanic Gardens to be nominated as its first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From now to December 2013, members of the public will be able to contribute feedback to the Nomination Dossier, which will eventually be submitted to the World Heritage Committee by February 1, 2014.

The committee will then deliberate on the nomination and decide if the Gardens will be inscribed as a World Heritage Site.

The Botanic Gardens was chosen for submission because it fulfills the criteria of having outstanding universal value.

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.

Conducted in two stages, the public can contribute feedback on two key documents within the Nomination Dossier: the Nomination Document, and the Site Management Plan.

From now, the public will be able to comment on the Nomination Document, which provides supporting evidence on how the Singapore Botanic Gardens fulfils UNESCO's inscription criteria.

And from November to December, views will be sought on the Site Management Plan, which outlines how the Gardens will be managed if successfully inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Where possible, relevant feedback and information gathered from the public consultation process will be included in the Nomination Document.

The consultation process marks the culmination of a wider engagement on the nomination since 2010, when the government started its engagement of a number of stakeholders, such as the Singapore Heritage Society and the Nature Society (Singapore).

Underlining the importance placed on public consultations, Ms Jean Wee, director of the preservation of sites and monuments at NHB said, "The Singapore Botanic Gardens has been, and continues to be an important site of memory, and we would very much appreciate Singaporeans contributing their input in ways that they feel will support its successful inscription."

Dr Nigel Taylor, director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, also hoped that members of the public would contribute historical information and ideas about the Botanic Gardens, which could also be used to make the heritage tours of the Gardens more meaningful for visitors.

Members of the public will be able to view the documents, and submit their views at www.sbg.org.sg/unesco. The Nomination Document will also be available for viewing at the three Visitor Information Counters at the Gardens.

The Botanic Gardens is currently on UNESCO's list of "tentative sites". If successful, it will join 981 sites worldwide that are recognised by UNESCO as having "outstanding universal value".

- CNA/fa/ac

Help in Botanic Gardens' Unesco site bid
Personal stories sought as 154-year-old attraction vies for UN heritage status
Melissa Lin Straits Times 13 Sep 13;

MEMBERS of the public are being invited to take part in the Singapore Botanic Gardens' bid for Unesco World Heritage Site status.

They have until December to give their feedback on the nomination dossier, which sets out why the 154-year-old attraction deserves the honour.

They can also support the bid by sharing anecdotes and memories of the gardens.

The National Heritage Board and the National Parks Board want the public's opinion on two documents that will be submitted to Unesco, known in full as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

One outlines how the gardens fulfil the nomination criteria, while the other is a site management plan that proposes how they will be run if the bid is successful.

Unesco World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural spots that have been deemed to have outstanding universal value.

To receive the honour, they must also meet at least one of 10 criteria. The gardens were nominated under two of them.

Firstly, they "exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design".

Secondly, they are "an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history".

To show the gardens' value, the nomination papers listed the historically important roles they have played.

For example, "pioneering work on rubber cultivation and techniques for tapping" was carried out there in the 1880s and 1890s, laying the foundation for the early 20th-century rubber boom.

The gardens also introduced economically valuable crops such as oil palm and coffee to South-east Asia.

To this day, they play an important role in conservation, housing at least 34 "veteran trees" - many of which are more than 100 years old. A 6ha rainforest in the gardens contains trees native to Singapore which are now rare because of deforestation.

Members of the public can view the documents and give their feedback at www.sbg.org.sg/unesco. Hard copies are also available at the gardens' visitor information counters.

Both documents will be submitted to Unesco by Feb 1. It will then decide whether to grant the gardens World Heritage Site status.

Singapore Heritage Society vice-president Chua Ai Lin said it is important to show the whole community supports the site's nomination. She added: "It's not just the institutional story (that's important) but how people relate to the gardens."

The nomination bid was first suggested in 2009 by the Singapore Heritage Society.

The following year, the Government asked foreign consultants to identify the sites with the best chance of being listed.

Their suggestions included the Civic District, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Haw Par Villa, the former Ford Factory and the Botanic Gardens.

After the nomination criteria were taken into account, the gardens emerged the clear winner.

An initial application pitching the idea was sent to Unesco last December.