Dive boat squashes reefs off Pulau Hantu
from wild shores of singapore
Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015
from Green Future Solutions
A Glimpse Of Paradise
from Winging It
Migration of Juvenile Oriental Honey Buzzards over central Singapore
from Singapore Bird Group
All bees visiting flowers of Singapore Rhododendron must indulge in “buzz pollination”
from Bird Ecology Study Group
The Star/Asia News Network AsiaOne 12 Nov 14;
CAMERON HIGHLANDS - The crackdown on illegal workers in Cameron Highlands soon after flash floods damaged farms there will mean costlier vegetables and flowers in coming months.
Several farmers said the higher prices will impact local consumers as well as exports to Singapore and other countries, particularly during the Christmas season next month and Chinese New Year in February.
The Immigration Department has hauled in scores of foreign workers, who allegedly do not have proper work permits, after a Home Ministry investigation revealed that a syndicate was bringing in thousands of illegals here.
Many other foreign workers have also reportedly gone into hiding as the crackdown continues, giving the farmers a headache over how to tend their crops in the wake of the sudden shortage in their workforce.
This happened soon after flash floods and landslides caused much damage and killed five people on Nov 5.
The flooding was triggered by a long drawn out downpour that evening, which state authorities have blamed on illegal land clearing activities.
Yesterday, a team from The Star saw only skeleton crews tending to vast hectares of farmland in Ringlet town and other areas. Normally, there would be two or three workers for each hectare of farmland.
A farmer who asked to be identified only as Tan, 62, said he now has only two workers at his onion and vegetable farm where he had six previously.
"Taikor (boss) also has to work now!" he said as he tended to his plots with his wife.
The couple has four grown up children, but they have since moved away after getting married.
Another farmer who only gave his name as Chua, 55, only has three workers now for his 0.809ha mint leaf farm.
He said prices of vegetables and flowers would increase because many farmers may have to hire more help at short notice or suffer a limited harvest.
"Prices are going to go up. I sell a kilo (of mint leaves) for RM2 (S$0.80) now. This will go up by two to three ringgit by year end.
"It will definitely go higher around the Chinese New Year period due to the flood damage and crackdown on illegals," he said.
One 25-year-old woman, whose father farms flowers and vegetables, agreed with Chua.
"We can't say by how much just yet. But a bunch of flowers is about RM8 and will probably cost much more by the holiday season," she said, declining to give her name.
"Supply is also limited. Our harvest for specifically that period was partially destroyed by the floods. More farms were damaged this time, compared to the flash flood last year."
S. Vanitha, who runs a flower nursery, said many workers have been hauled up.
"There is much fear among worker communities. Not just farm hands are affected, also those working in restaurants, souvenir shops and other businesses."
Indian national Muniandy, 28, a farm worker, said his boss keeps his documents close at hand in case of any spot checks.
"Many of us have also been told not to speak to any people unfamiliar to us," he said.
Carolyn Khew The Straits Times AsiaOne 12 Nov 14;
A BIODIVERSITY pond to teach students about nature, walls painted with murals of the old Kampong Bugis and bins in the shape of frogs or bottles will soon spring up at Kallang Riverside Park.
Founder and chairman of Waterways Watch Society (WWS) Eugene Heng has dreamt up an ecovillage on a 400m stretch of the park to ignite a green spark in park users.
The environmental group is the first non-governmental organisation to sign an agreement with the National Parks Board (NParks) to organise and run activities in a park.
Mr Heng, 65, a retired bank executive, said he mooted the idea of the society taking on more responsibility for the area about five years ago.
WWS, which has 380 volunteers, including two full-timers, has been patrolling and picking up litter there for the past 16 years. It also does clean-up and environmental activities in other places.
Its latest project is in line with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's announcement last Saturday that the Government will work with partners who want to do more for the environment.
NParks director of parks Kartini Omar said with WWS's experience in developing programmes and outreach, the partnership will provide more recreational opportunities for all to enjoy.
NParks has previously joined hands with other environmental NGOs such as WildSingapore and the Toddycats on activities like guided nature walks, bird watching and nature photography.
Mr Heng said he plans to build a biodiversity pond, which will help students learn more about plants and wildlife. In addition, his society hopes to team up with institutes of higher learning to raise awareness of environmental issues such as littering.
"We may also hold exhibitions on recycling, repaint walls or redesign some of the rubbish bins to make them more appealing," he added.
"The park is very quiet on weekdays, so we hope to enhance it so that people will come here to enjoy nature."
Experts called the collaboration a win-win situation.
Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment Lee Bee Wah noted: "Non-government groups can sometimes be better attuned to the public's needs, and can... be free from red tape (compared with) a government agency."
NParks puts up the infrastructure and lays out policies while WWS does the ground work of engaging people, she added.
NParks will continue to own and manage the park, but WWS can develop and maintain other facilities in the village, such as a portable stage for water sports events and signboards to support its programmes, subject to NParks' approval.
People who want to organise public events in the village will also have to go through WWS first, although NParks has the final say.
Said Mr Heng: "Over the years, we have seen more volunteers who are passionate and have the relevant expertise. I believe we can tap on that."
But he acknowledged that more sponsorships and full-time staff will be needed.
Mr Leong Kwok Peng, the Nature Society (Singapore) vice-president, added that the partnership is a big step forward for civil society here.
"It breaks new ground... Hopefully more such partnerships can be done in nature conservation and heritage," he said.
Monica Kotwani Channel NewsAsia 12 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Singapore Standards Council on Wednesday (Nov 12) announced the implementation of Singapore Standard SS587, which will provide guidelines on how businesses can get rid of their electronic waste responsibly.
The announcement was made at the Electronics Recycling Asia Conference this morning, and the standard was first revealed in September last year.
About 60,000 tonnes of e-waste are generated annually in Singapore, of which about half are common household IT products ad home appliances while the rest are IT equipment generated from business and industrial sectors, the NEA estimated.
The establishment of the standard aims to promote the adoption of best practices by businesses and industries in managing their electronic waste, and raise awareness among businesses and industries on environmentally responsible electronic waste management, the agency added.
To help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) adopt the standard, SPRING Singapore will co-fund up to 70 per cent of the costs associated with adopting the standard. There is also an accreditation scheme for companies that adhere to e-waste guidelines.
Two companies that were first to have achieved the SS587 accreditation were recognised on Wednesday. Green packaging company Greenpac and Solvay Specialty Chemicals Asia Pacific both received their certificates.
- CNA/kk
National standard to guide businesses and industries in managing e-waste
Today Online 12 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE — The National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Singapore Standards Council announced the implementation of Singapore Standard SS587 today (Nov 12), which aims to promote the adoption of best practices by businesses and industries in managing electronic waste.
The joint announcement was made at the Electronics Recycling Asia Conference held earlier this morning.
The NEA estimates that about 60,000 tonnes of e-waste are generated annually in Singapore. Of this, about half consists of common household IT products and appliances, while the rest are equipment generated from the business and industrial sectors.
The establishment of the standard also seeks to raise awareness among businesses and industries on environmentally responsible electronic waste management.
To help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) adopt the standard, SPRING Singapore will co-fund up to 70 per cent of the qualifying costs of adopting the standard.
An accreditation scheme for companies will also recognise establishments that practise socially responsible disposal methods.
Two companies, Green packaging company Greenpac and Solvay Specialty Chemicals Asia Pacific, were the first to achieve this a
Audrey Tan The Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE has hit its greening targets two decades before its deadline of 2030 - and the Government has decided to raise the bar significantly.
Last year, plants covering building exteriors totalled more than 61ha, an area the size of 195 school fields.
This far exceeded the target of 50ha the government had hoped to hit by 2030.
The new target is now 200ha of building greenery by the same deadline.
A spokesman from the National Parks Board (NParks) attributed the rapid increment of skyrise greenery to several programmes.
This includes the Urban Redevelopment Authority's enhanced Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (Lush) programme, and NParks' Skyrise Greenery Incentive Scheme, which offers incentives and subsidies to encourage the installation of skyrise greenery.
The greenery targets were spelt out in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint - first in 2009 and again in the latest document released last Saturday.
This blueprint sets out the Republic's targets and strategies for sustainable development until 2030, in areas such as recycling and air quality.
Green roofs, vertical greenery and gardens in the sky can reduce urban heat gain, which could translate into energy savings, said Mr Tan Seng Chai, group chief corporate officer of CapitaLand and chairman of the CapitaLand Sustainability Steering Committee.
For instance, green roofs and walls can cool surface temperatures by up to 18 deg C and 12 deg C, respectively.
Skyrise greenery also has the potential to improve air quality and create habitats to enhance biodiversity in urban areas.
The new target is not too ambitious, the NParks spokesman said, adding: "We are confident that with the whole of government approach coupled with partnership with private developers, this target is achievable."
For NParks, this would include working with other agencies, such as the Education Ministry, as well as developers of public and community infrastructure, to green their buildings.
The Housing Board is also looking to incorporate skyrise greenery into their buildings so that it becomes "a signature of their developments". The private sector also welcomed the new target.
"In land-scarce Singapore... more skyrise greenery can maximise the use of space to bring about many benefits," said Mr Allen Ang, head of innovation and green building at property developer City Developments.
Mr Stephen Pimbley, founder and director of architecture firm Spark Architects, said much of Singapore's skyrise greenery is "fairly divorced" from the everyday experience of architecture.
He said: "Imagine if our City in a Garden were able to grow its own food - Singapore could boast a network of productive urban gardens and reduce the need for food importation."
MANJIT KAUR The Star 12 Nov 14;
TAIPING: The name may be unappealing but count your lucky stars if you meet the burung botak upeh at the Kuala Gula bird sanctuary.
That’s the local name for the endangered Milky Stork, which can be sighted in large numbers at the bird sanctuary in Kerian.
Taiping Zoo and Night Safari director Dr Kevin Lazarus said the species of the stork is nearly extinct and the Kuala Gula mangrove forest is the only place where the bird can be seen in the wild in Malaysia.
There were about 10 protected wading birds left in the forest during a census conducted 10 years ago, he said.
“About 25 years ago, there were more than 100 of the species, but the number of these birds has dwindled over the years. There is no sign of them breeding.
“The number has declined significantly due to poaching, people shooting the birds and the danger of predators such as eagles and monitor lizards eating the eggs,” he said yesterday.
However, bird lovers can also see the Milky Stork at the Taiping Zoo, which has 26 of the birds.
Dr Lazarus said Zoo Negara, together with the Perak Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department (Perhilitan), carried out a rehabilitation and reintroduction programme to breed the Milky Stork.
When contacted, state Perhilitan director Fakhrul Hatta Musa said a memorandum signed between the department and Zoo Negara had stated that about 150 of such birds were to be released at the bird sanctuary in stages.
“So far, 49 birds have been released. We are hoping for another 100 to be released by end of next month or early next year,” he said.
“The stork is endemic to the mangrove forest of Kuala Gula, and since the introduction of the programme in 2007, we have found four baby storks hatched in the wild.”
On another matter, Taiping Municipal Council president Datuk Abdul Rahim Md Ariff announced the birth of several animals at the zoo, which included a chimpanzee, a Malayan porcupine and five brush-tailed porcupines.
Yudith Ho and Rieka Rahadiana Bloomberg 12 Nov 14;
If you worry that rising sea levels may one day flood your city, spare a thought for Michelle Darmawan. Her house in Jakarta is inundated several times a year -- and it’s 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the coast.
Whenever there’s a particularly high tide or heavy rain, the Ciliwung River and its network of canals overflow, swamping thousands of homes in Indonesia’s capital. In January, a muddy deluge washed over Darmawan’s raised porch, contaminating her fresh-water tank and cutting off electricity for three days.
“We were sitting on the second floor, looking down at the floods, calling out to neighbors to make sure they’re OK,” said Darmawan, 27, a marketing executive whose family had to store drinking water in buckets.
Jakarta, a former Dutch trading port, is one of the world’s megacities most at risk from rising sea levels. That’s because parts of the metropolis of almost 30 million people are sinking by as much as 6 inches a year, more than 10 times faster than the sea is rising.
The Indonesian capital ranks eighth among the 30 biggest cities in the 2015 Climate Change Vulnerability Index compiled by Bath, England-based risk-assessment company Maplecroft. The index is led by Dhaka, Lahore in Pakistan, and Delhi.
$40 Billion
The government’s solution: a $40 billion land-reclamation project unveiled last month. It includes a 32-kilometer (20-mile) sea wall, a chain of artificial islands, a lagoon about the size of Manhattan -- and a giant offshore barrier island in the shape of the national symbol, the mythical bird Garuda.
The first pile for the initial stage of the program -- a barrier to strengthen existing sea defenses along 32 kilometers -- was sunk at the Oct. 9 opening ceremony.
“The whole city is sinking like Atlantis,” said Christophe Girot, principal investigator of the Jakarta Study at the Future Cities Laboratory research group in Singapore. “You see the absolute most miserable and poorest population living right by the river, and they know they’re going to get flooded and may be killed three or four more times a year.”
The central and municipal governments will split the 3.2 trillion rupiah ($263 million) cost for the first 8 kilometers of the wall. Developers would put up the remaining 24 kilometers by 2030 in exchange for the right to build on reclaimed land.
Breached Defenses
Drenched by tropical downpours in the October-to-March rainy season, Jakarta is no stranger to flooding from its rivers, which flow into the coastal plain from the mountains of Bogor to the south. A new urgency arose in 2007 when, for the first time, the sea flowed over the embankments and levees in the north.
Records of a settlement at the mouth of the Ciliwung date to the 4th century. The area rose to prominence when the Dutch East India Company developed the city of Batavia in the early 17th century. As the port expanded, a Flemish military engineer, Simon Stevin, designed a walled city modeled on a traditional Dutch town, including canals to drain the Ciliwung delta into the sea. Today, the metropolis is home to almost 30 million people, making it the second-most-populous urban area in the world, after Tokyo-Yokohama, according to urban-policy research company Demographia in Belleville, Illinois.
Now the Dutch are back to help, with the new master plan drawn up by engineering and consultancy companies Witteveen+Bos and Grontmij. (GRONT)
Below Sea Level
“When a third of the city is under sea level and there’s nowhere else to put people, the only option is to go the Netherlands route,” said Paul Rowland, a Jakarta-based political consultant. “It’s just going to get worse.”
The works can’t come too soon. In October 2013, the sea rose to just 10 centimeters below the top of the defenses, threatening 4 million people, according to Deventer-based Witteveen+Bos. Global sea levels may increase by as much as 82 centimeters this century, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Meanwhile, North Jakarta is sinking by between 7.5 and 17 centimeters a year because of decades of pumping out groundwater to supply homes and businesses.
Coastal cities have been building barriers against the waves since Herod the Great sank barges full of concrete to protect the harbor of Caesarea Maritima in modern Israel before the birth of Jesus Christ. With the rise of sea levels accelerating, ocean defenses have become more popular -- from London’s Thames Barrier, opened in 1982, to Venice’s 5.5 million-euro ($6.8 million) MOSE project, scheduled for completion in 2016.
New Business
For local companies such as PT Agung Podomoro Land (APLN), Indonesia’s seventh-largest property developer, the Garuda project opens up a whole new area that has traditionally been blighted with run-down colonial structures and shanties, sandwiched between an airport and the nation’s largest port.
Podomoro is marketing a planned 160-hectare (395-acre) manmade island called Pluit City with apartments, a shopping mall, offices, an international school and a “floating” opera house.
“The sea level keeps rising while Jakarta is sinking, so without a wall the flooding will get worse,” said Wibisono, Podomoro’s head of investor relations, who, like some Indonesians, uses one name. “Development is happening across Jakarta, from East, West and South, but in the North it’s constrained by lack of land.”
15 Years
The company is awaiting a license to begin reclaiming the land, he said. The island city would take 10 to 15 years to complete.
The sleek images of the future contrast with the patchwork of slums, docks and walled compounds today. The first piles for the new sea wall are being erected in Muara Baru, near the sprawling Dunia Fantasi amusement park. On the shore, fishermen work on their boats next to a 3-meter sluice gate with pumps that keep the land from submerging.
Nearby, antique cars are parked in the driveway of a mansion in a walled compound and an Azimut motor yacht is tethered to its private dock.
In the narrow streets of Muara Angke to the west, the evening air is filled with the smell of salted fish, laid out to dry in front of crowded concrete houses. These streets have sunk more than 4 meters -- the height of the houses -- since records began in 1975, according to a report for the Jakarta Coastal Defence Strategy study in 2012. They wind down to the sea where Warkin, a fisherman sits in his wooden boat, mending his net before heading out for the night’s catch.
Fishermen’s Worries
He’s worried the project will disrupt fishing grounds and block the boats. “How will small people like us go out to sea if they build a wall?” said Warkin, who made almost a week’s wages in a single day during a flood last year by ferrying fresh fruit and vegetables to the rich neighborhoods. “How will we be able to keep fishing?”
That’s not the only potential problem. Skeptics are concerned about the amount of garbage and silt the city’s rivers would spew into the proposed lagoon, the corruption such a large project would attract and the danger posed by the fact that Indonesia is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.
The city’s acting governor, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, said the first stage -- strengthening the existing defenses -- will go ahead, while further studies need to be done before proceeding with the plan for the land reclamation and Garuda island.
Better Drainage
Darmawan, the marketing executive whose house is near a canal that joins the Ciliwung, is doubtful about the benefit.
“I’m not going to get my hopes up that it will get better, knowing how Jakarta is,” she said. “I’m not that optimistic about the sea wall. I think they should improve the drainage system.”
She said the government brought in dredging equipment after the January floods to remove garbage from the canals, but it hasn’t made much difference.
“The difficulty in widening and improving drainage along the Ciliwung River lies in entrenched practices of pumping ground water and dumping of human and industrial waste,” said Girot, who is also a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. “Building the wall of course would guard against the rising seas very well, but we should first take care of the river.”
Residents caught between the rising sea and the flooding Ciliwung aren’t holding their breath.
“The giant sea wall is only a project to earn more money for government officials and give more land for real-estate developers,” said Charli Soegono, 38, who lost his red Honda Civic and whose prized Arowana fish swam away when water flooded his house up to the second floor last year. “It was like in that movie Titanic, where the ship is sinking and you have to rush to get all your valuables out of the water.”
Secret lagoon on Seringat-Kias
from wild shores of singapore
Sat 15 / Sun 16 Nov’14 public guided walks
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.
Venessa Lee The Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Nov 14;
Raising an animal activist son: Acres founder Louis Ng and his family
Mr Robert Ng, 66, says he has no affinity for animals, unlike his son Louis Ng, founder and executive director of animal welfare group Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (Acres).
As if to illustrate this, the elder Mr Ng, a division manager in an equipment firm, mistakenly recalls in this interview how Louis once kept a "gorilla or chimpanzee" in a cage in their garden.
Louis, 35, clarifies that it was a vervet monkey, a far smaller primate, and it was kept at their Yio Chu Kang house for only a couple of days in 2004 before being sent to a wildlife sanctuary in Zambia. It had been rescued by Acres after it was illegally imported into Singapore to be a "pet".
In fact, Louis, who has an elder sister, has been giving his parents surprises even before that incident. When he was 21, he announced that he was vegetarian and, about a year later, in 2001, he founded Acres while majoring in biology at the National University of Singapore.
His mother, retired civil servant Angela Quek, says: "I had sleepless nights worrying about his future. To me, it's not a normal path for a graduate. But we let him try it out. At least he has university qualification. If he fails in Acres, he can still get another job."
Louis, who also has a master's degree in primate conservation from Oxford Brookes University in Britain, drew a monthly salary of just $500 during Acres' early days. His father says: "I couldn't see a career in Acres. It was a major shock to me."
Louis, who has a nine-month-old daughter with his Britain-born wife Amy, had another surprise in store for Mr Ng recently when he entered politics by joining the People's Action Party.
Mr Ng says: "I never knew he was interested in politics. But by then, I was confident in him. He's very strong in his conviction. The first 10 years at Acres, it was really tough for him. There were a lot of problems, no funds...
"Maybe he has my genes - he's very determined. My wife and I trust both our children. We let them make independent decisions." How did Louis' love of animals start?
Louis: Something just clicked when I was young. I used to go to the Ang Mo Kio library after school and borrow books with animal themes, especially the James Herriot books. I volunteered with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, at a veterinary clinic and at the zoo. I wanted to be a vet.
Ms Quek: I bought him two hamsters when he was about 10. One day, he called me at the office, crying so hard that he couldn't speak properly. I thought he was injured. It turned out one of his hamsters had died. When I came back, I found he had buried it in a field near our flat.
Because my husband and I were both working, we couldn't have bigger pets though he wanted a dog and he brought a stray cat home for a few days.
Louis, why did you become vegetarian?
Louis: When I was 14 years old, I gave up eating my favourite food then - turtle soup - as well as shark's fin and stingray. I watched TV shows about protecting these animals. The stingrays, for example, would come up to interact with human divers. From my perspective as a child then, it looked as if stingrays were my friends. I became fully vegetarian at age 21.
My wife, Amy, is also vegetarian and we're raising our daughter Ella vegetarian. When she's old enough, it's up to her to decide if she wants to continue with it.
Mr Ng: It took me a few months to accept he was vegetarian. We had to look for special food for him - it was a bit troublesome.
Ms Quek: He eats very simply. When he became vegetarian, I would sometimes cook him tau kwa (fried beancurd) or potato with rice. Louis is a very simple man. He doesn't go for branded clothes. He has always lived within his means.
What was Louis like as a child?
Ms Quek: He was a good boy. He didn't give us any trouble or mix with bad company when he was young.
Mr Ng: He was very reserved. We were a bit worried about how quiet he was. We wanted him to mix more with other kids. He used to be too shy to speak. Now, I am proud to hear him speak in public.
Louis, you won an Advocate of the Year award in August. How did you become comfortable with public speaking?
Louis: Most of my university mates didn't even know I was an activist. By necessity, I had to speak up, for example, for our first campaign against chimp photography, where young chimpanzees are permanently taken from their parents for this purpose.
I realised if nobody wanted to speak up about such issues, I would.
Who are you closest to in your family?
Louis: My sister because we spent our childhood together. I spent most of my time with her and two female cousins. I was the youngest. I would lie across a newspaper she was reading to get her to play games such as Monopoly or Cluedo with me. Otherwise, I would be stuck playing Ken, while she and my cousins played with Barbie dolls.
In this way, my sister taught me to be persistent and creative, which helped in my advocacy work. I am also close to both my parents. What is your parenting style like?
Ms Quek: It's more consultative. The door is always open - if you have problems, come and talk to us, we'll support you.
Mr Ng: For example, when Louis started Acres, he didn't have a van to transport rescued animals. I bought him one. When my children were in university, I bought them a second-hand car that they shared.
Louis: They were supportive of any decision I made, whether or not they were against it.
How did you discipline your children when they were younger?
Mr Ng: I would cane them once in a blue moon, on the hand or leg. When I was young, I was quite hot- tempered. Ms Quek: Sometimes it would be because their test results were not good and he wanted them to work harder. I didn't cane my children. I left it to the father. I sometimes tried to protect them by blocking the cane. What are your family values? Ms Quek: I believe in honesty, integrity and compassion. Louis demonstrates these qualities - he's running a charity.
Louis: My dad says in life - you always have to try. It's an important lesson - that failing is an option. In setting up Acres, there were failures. We got a rescue centre only after four years of negotiating. You have to fail to succeed. As a society, we're being held back by a fear of failure. If the parent-child roles were reversed, what would you have done differently?
Louis: Nothing. They have always been supportive.
Mr Ng: I wouldn't have done Acres. Fifteen years ago, society didn't want to support animal rights. When asked for donations, people would say they would rather give funds to help humans. It was a hard road he took. I was never an animal lover. I would have taken a corporate job to support my family.
Ms Quek: I wouldn't have taken risks like Louis did, in setting up Acres.
NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 10 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE — The Republic’s green spaces will be part of its 50th birthday celebrations next year, with roadside greenery to be spruced up, more trees to be planted and public events to be hosted at parks.
From the third quarter of next year, the iconic rain trees along a 3.4km stretch of East Coast Parkway (ECP) that greet travellers from Changi Airport will be specially lit up to showcase their beauty at night.
Additional planting and landscaping will also be done along the ECP and four other expressways, as well as major roads in the civic and Central Business District, said Minister of State (National Development) Desmond Lee yesterday as he announced the National Parks Board’s (NParks) SG50 plans.
Free concerts will be held at six parks and gardens here — starting with Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park next March — with local talents performing jazz, classical and contemporary music as well as xinyao. The other parks hosting concerts include Admiralty Park in May and the Singapore Botanic Gardens in August.
And 50 Community In Bloom groups will come together to create five garden displays at the HortPark from March. A mass tree-planting exercise will take place next September and October, with 5,000 more trees to be planted at the park connectors, parks and nature ways.
Mr Lee was speaking at the launch of the Jurong Spring Nature Way, a 5.3km route from Jurong Lake Park to the Western Catchment area that aims to attract more birds and butterflies through specific trees and shrubs planted. The endangered native Yellow Cow Wood tree, for instance, is a host plant for several butterfly species such as the Archduke and Short Banded Sailor, while the Small-leafed Oil-fruit tree bears fruit eaten by birds such as the Yellow-vented Bulbul and Pink-necked Pigeon. The nature way, which winds through largely residential areas, is one of eight here with a combined length of 43.3km.
NParks deputy chief executive Leong Chee Chiew said the nature ways would allow everyday encounters with birds and butterflies, such as on walks home from the MRT station.
Jurong resident Thilagar Ragavan, 13, welcomed the possibility of seeing more wildlife but hoped existing species of beetles and other insects would not be affected. His friend, Gangababu Giry Thara Prasath, 15, said the sightings could spur an interest among the youth to know more about various animal species.
Asked how roadside greenery would be enhanced for SG50, Dr Leong said more varieties of trees would be planted — similar to what has been done along newer roads — to create a more natural look. And where roads have been widened, NParks tries to replant big specimens to get back the mature greenery as quickly as possible. “When you remove mature trees, there’s going to be a gap between the removal of the tree and eventual growth of a new plant,” he explained.
The special lighting of the stretch of the ECP would showcase the sculptural beauty of the rain trees, said Dr Leong, who is also Commissioner of Parks and Recreation. “We’ll be quite careful about how bright (the lights) should be and where (they) should point and so on … we will try our best to make it pretty without being overwhelming,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu said she hoped to see more corporations step forward to participate in the SG50 celebrations. Speaking at the Great Eastern Women’s Run organised by the insurer yesterday, Ms Fu commended the firm’s move to offer free insurance for Jubilee-year babies next year.
“I’m happy to see that many corporates are stepping up. SG50 shouldn’t be the Government’s way of celebrating the Jubilee year. It should be everyone in Singapore, all corporates stepping in and doing their part. We hope more companies will also join in,” she said.
NParks to mark SG50 by beautifying expressways
Aw Cheng Wei The Straits Times AsiaOne 12 Nov 14;
Singapore's expressways will be dressed up for SG50 celebrations next year.
Roadside greenery along the five major expressways, including the East Coast Parkway and Pan-Island Expressway, will have additional landscaping as part of the National Parks Board's (NParks) plans to celebrate the nation's golden jubilee.
This is being done to make the expressways "even more distinctive and beautiful", said Mr Desmond Lee, Minister of State for National Development.
He revealed NParks' celebratory plans yesterday at the launch of the new Jurong Spring Nature Way, which spans 5.3km, connecting the Western Catchment Area to the upcoming Jurong Lake Gardens.
As part of the festivities, a 3.4km stretch of road from Changi Airport will also be installed with special lighting among its overlapping canopy of raintrees.
A tender is being called for the new lights, and they are expected to be installed by September next year.
NParks' deputy chief executive, Dr Leong Chee Chiew, said: "Our lush roadside greenery must continue to differentiate us from other cities."
As part of NParks' SG50 celebrations, there will be a series of six free concerts at locations such as Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Botanic Gardens and Admiralty Park.
Over at HortPark, some 50 community groups will create garden showcases at five gardens.
Meanwhile, a photography competition to encourage people to share their favourite photographs of parks and gardens is under way. The closing date for the first of four themes is on Jan 7.
Mr Lee, who is an MP for Jurong GRC, noted that there will be something "different and interesting" for everyone.
Coinciding with SG50 is the 25th anniversary of Singapore's park connectors. To celebrate this, a mass tree planting initiative with some 5,000 trees will be carried out at 50 places.
NParks nursery to be opened to public for the first time
Alice Chia Channel NewsAsia 10 Nov 14;
SINGAPORE: This Saturday (Nov 15), the National Parks Board's (NParks) nursery in Pasir Panjang will throw open its doors to the public for the first time.
The series of guided tours arranged by NParks was fully subscribed within two days. About 200 people have signed up for the tours, organised in conjunction with the Clean and Green Singapore 2015 campaign.
Set up in the 1970s, the 12-hectare Pasir Panjang Nursery supplies close to 200,000 plants a year to green Singapore's roads and parks. At any one time, the nursery is stocked with over 3,000 species of plants. Around 80 per cent of them are native plants. The rest come from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
With about 100 rare species, one of the highlights that tour participants will get to see is the Singapore Kopsia, a tree with distinctive white flowers.
The tree can only be found in fresh water swamp forests and is critically endangered, with fewer than 50 mature trees in Singapore.
Even the nursery's canal has been turned into a flowering oasis, with over 50 types of aquatic plants.
"The spread of plants in Pasir Panjang Nursery is important to us because of the nature areas that we have in Singapore, for our parks and streetscapes,” said Mr Ng Cheow Kheng, director of horticulture and community gardening at the National Parks Board.
“It is so important to bring back the species that were here originally and to propagate them so that we have enough of these seedlings and saplings to be grown all over Singapore.
“Why is it important for biodiversity? Because we want to bring back some of the native birds, butterflies, dragonflies - all the desirable animal life in Singapore. We need them to have a healthy living environment."
During the tour, NParks officers will also share what they do in their daily operations. "We work with our colleagues from parks, streetscapes and conservation, so that they will go and look for the plants during mass flowering and fruit season in the forests,” said Mr Ng. “Then we collect all the seeds, bring back to propagate them and germinate so that they can be re-introduced into the environment."
Seeds and saplings are typically grown at the nursery for around three to six months, before they are planted island-wide.
NParks said it will gauge the response from the public and decide whether to open up more tours in future.
- CNA/ek
NParks nursery opens for rare tour
Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Nov 14;
All 60 places for a rare chance to see where some of Singapore's park and roadside trees and plants come from were snapped up within hours yesterday.
The National Parks Board (NParks) had announced yesterday morning that it will open the Pasir Panjang Nursery, its only nursery, to the public for a rare guided tour this Saturday.
By evening, all places have been taken, but NParks said it will consider having more tours in future.
The nursery tour is organised in conjunction with the year-long Clean and Green Singapore 2015 campaign, which aims to inspire Singaporeans to protect the environment.
The Pasir Panjang Nursery is about 12ha, or the size of 30 football fields, and supplies close to 200,000 plants each year to green the island's roads and parks.
Most of the plants provided by the nursery are native to Singapore and are not easily available in commercial nurseries.
It also sources for plants from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to increase the variety of plants used in NParks' planting programmes.
The nursery's inventory includes trees, shrubs, herbs, fruit trees, aquatic plants and more.
To support the conservation of Singapore's native species, NParks officers also collect seeds and saplings of native plants from forests and parks across Singapore every week, so they can be grown in the nursery until they are ready to be planted islandwide.
NParks chief executive Kenneth Er said the nursery is a key part in Singapore's greening efforts.
"Decades of our pioneers' hard work... have enabled us to reap the benefits of the verdant landscape.
"(The tour) is one way of inspiring the community to continue in the shared responsibility of carrying on Singapore's greening journey," he said.
Lim Yan Liang The Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Nov 14;
It will take some time to persuade "spoilt" Singaporeans to clean up after themselves, according to the man helming a movement to do just that.
"We can't change Singapore as a society overnight," said Mr Liak Teng Lit, chairman of the Public Hygiene Council, which leads the Keep Singapore Clean Movement.
Citing countries like Japan, where citizens take the initiative to keep common areas clean, Mr Liak lamented that Singaporeans are "so spoilt", being used to town council and hawker centre cleaners picking up after them.
"But hopefully we can change things bit by bit," he said yesterday at the opening ceremony of the year-long Clean and Green Singapore 2015 campaign.
Mr Liak is hoping two community initiatives that were launched alongside the campaign will teach Singaporeans to be more responsible for their own waste.
The first is an expanded Bright Spots Challenge, which aims to increase the number of litter-free "bright spots" in Singapore from 300 now to 500 by the end of next year.
First launched in 2012, the initiative invites people and organisations to adopt communal spaces and keep them clean, turning them into "bright spots" to be emulated.
"I'm hoping that with all these bright spots, good behaviour will grow and spread outwards, and also convince the sceptics," he said.
One such bright spot is Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where Mr Liak was chief executive officer before becoming group chief executive of Alexandra Health in 2012.
Nine in 10 people who eat at the hospital's food court return their trays, whether they are staff, patients or residents, Mr Liak noted.
"Where there is some peer pressure and social norms for you to do things in a certain way, it works."
The other initiative is the No Waste Days Challenge, which encourages Singaporeans to make a pledge not to waste food and to use fewer disposable items.
Members of the public can make pledges at Clean and Green Singapore carnivals that will be held islandwide this month. They can also upload photos of themselves being eco-friendly on social media.
The National Environment Agency said it aims to collect 50,000 photo submissions and pledges by June next year, and is urging companies to make donations to charitable causes when certain milestones are met.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday called on individual Singaporeans to do their part in helping to make Singapore cleaner and greener, noting that each Singaporean now generates nearly 1.5 tonnes of waste a year.
While the Government can build better public transport and more chutes for convenient recycling at home, it is up to each person to adjust their commuting and recycling habits, he said.
"We will have the infrastructure, but please, don't generate so much waste," he added.
Maureen Koh The New Paper AsiaOne 11 Nov 14;
"If you don't finish your food, your spouse's face will have pimples and pockmarks," goes an old Chinese saying.
It used to scare kids enough that we'd actually polish off the food on our plates.
But I suspect it may not be working so well these days, going by the numbers released by the Singapore Environment Council last week.
In case you missed it: 800,000 tonnes of food wasted. In one year. That will need 1,420 Airbus A380s to carry the load.
And this amount can feed every person in Singapore a meal a day for an entire year.
The Government is concerned enough that in September, the Food Wastage Reduction Working Group commissioned a food waste survey involving 1,000 Singaporeans aged 18 and above to try to figure out the source of the food wastage problem.
The group was set up in 2012 to come up with recommendations and initiatives to address the problem.
The results of that survey should be made known soon.
Previous reports have pointed fingers at the manufacturing and retail sectors for food waste.
Essentially, retailers dump bruised or ugly fruit and vegetables because they say people simply won't buy them.
People are also ordering too much food and leaving them uneaten.
I headed to the heartlands this week to get a ground-up perspective of how much this issue affects heartlanders.
The buzzwords "food wastage" and the survey mean little to them, but in their own way, they already have been finding ways to minimise the throwing out of products.
And it's simply down to economics for these folks: The less they throw, the less they lose.
For instance: vegetable sellers and fruit sellers say that for the last three years, they have been setting aside and repackaging damaged produce.
Mr Remy Chua, 42, who owns a fruit stall in Pasir Ris is one of them. He says: "It is better to sell them cheaper than to throw the fruits, which at most times, are still edible."
Mr Low Kok Tiong, 59, a fruit seller in Bukit Merah, says regulars who buy his dented produce are foreign workers and families who shop on tight budgets.
Madam Ann Ng, 60, a vegetable seller in Bedok, says she used to discard "around five to six big baskets" of ugly vegetables each week, but that has changed since her son started to help out at the stall.
Her son, Mr Johnny Cheng, 40, credits his girlfriend for mooting the idea of repackaging his mother's usual discards.
"Customers demand that the vegetables they buy must not have pest marks and the colours must be in acceptable shades," he says.
"Some of them even reject those that look too ripe because that means they would have to cook right away.
"Instead of throwing them away, we identified a few cai png (Hokkien for economical rice) and zhi char stalls and sell to them at cost price."
Most hawkers I speak to also say they rarely have a day where they throw out lots of food.
Through experience, they know how much to prepare and which are their busy and slow days.
Again, it's economics. They have learnt to make sure they don't lose too much.
Unlike the wet market stalls, cooked food hawkers say they don't have the luxury of such repackaging.
At Bukit Merah, economical rice hawker Lim Chwee Gek, 58, says: "We learn to 'agak agak' (Malay for estimate) how much we should cook, or end up extending the operation hours."
Or selling the unsold food at a discount, she adds.
On this jaunt, my eyes were opened to well, expectations and perspectives.
I know that many consumers, myself included, have a certain idea of what an apple or melon should look like. And when the fruit does not conform to that, I don't pick it.
When I meet housewife Norhafizah Rathia, 43, she is picking some greens from a stall in the wet market at Clementi Avenue 3. But the greens don't really look that fresh.
As she stuffs the vegetables in a recycled bag, she says in Malay: "Sayang (dear), you see this bag? It'd probably cost twice as much if they were fresh and leafy."
She walks over to the fruits stall to collect a bag of mostly squashed oranges and apples.
"All you need to do is to cut out the 'bad' or 'ugly' portions and the rest of the fruits are edible," she says.
As "ugly" as the food may seem to most of us, it helps Madam Norhafizah to feed her family of 10, which includes her parents-in-law and five children, aged between seven and 13.
While they get financial assistance under various schemes, she reckons it is her responsibility to be thrifty.
Technician Yeo Kwee Seng, 37, has a list of stalls in two food centres - one near his workplace and another just across his home in Ang Mo Kio - where he will swing by for lunch or dinner, but "after the peak hours".
By this, he says: "I usually get a bigger serving as the hawkers will prefer not to throw away the unsold dishes."
He adds with a smile: "It works best for dinner because I can just buy one packet and share it with the wife."
Mr Yeo says that it is not as if he can't really afford it, but "a meal is just a meal", so he does not see why he shouldn't save whatever he can.
It's really about attitudes, right?
I suspect we have gone from a society of frugal savers to one that lives it up a little.
Mr Low Kok Tiong, the fruit seller in Bukit Merah, says in Mandarin that customers sometimes damage the produce by pressing and prodding, and refuse to buy it after.
But if we change our attitudes a bit, maybe that bruised fruit would be not so problematic?
Waste not, want not, my mother used to say.
That adage has, I confess, become quite remote in my household.
Vegetables that are not so green? Apples that are not rosy enough? Oranges that are out of shape?
Throw.
And when I go do the monthly stock-up-the-larder supermarket shopping, my purchases are often "wholesale-habit" - this means buying about half a dozen at one go.
But without proper stock-taking before the next trip, it also means buying in excess and we end up with products past their expiry dates.
We can leave the Government to work on its initiative to cut food wastage on a national level, but let's take the first step on our own, shall we?
"I usually get a bigger serving as the hawkers will prefer not to throw away the unsold dishes. It works best for dinner because I can just buy one packet and share it with the wife."
- Mr Yeo Kwee Seng on why he buys food 'after the peak hours'
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