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Samantha Boh My Paper AsiaOne 19 May 15;
Also as "Is going green mere lip service?" Samantha Boh The Straits Times AsiaOne 19 May 15;
PEOPLE who visit Singapore for the first time often rave about how clean and green this country is.
That is a fact and Singaporeans are proud of it.
What is not known to the visitors, though, is that the country's clean image is, in large part, the result of having an army of cleaners.
In other words, Singapore is a cleaned city.
In January, Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong wrote on Facebook that Singapore is likely to become a "garbage city", if not for the cleaners who pick up after its people.
As of September, there were 52,000 cleaners working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep Singapore clean.
ESM Goh's strong words came after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted a photograph of the Meadow at Gardens by the Bay, which was covered with litter after 13,000 people attended the 2015 Laneway Music Festival.
The photo and Mr Goh's comments sparked yet another debate on littering. Many people wrote to The Straits Times Forum page, lambasting the litterbugs.
One reader, Jolly Wee, said that in addition to a hefty fine, litterbugs should be made to pick up litter in the area where they live. "This would be more shameful, as they would be seen by their neighbours - people who know them," he said.
PERSISTENT PROBLEM
Despite decades of national campaigns, tougher laws and stepped-up enforcement, littering remains a difficult problem to sweep away.
A total of 19,000 fines were meted out for littering last year, almost double that of the year before. This was despite the doubling of fines for littering in April 2013 to $2,000 for the first conviction, $4,000 for the second conviction and $10,000 for the third and subsequent convictions.
As Liak Teng Lit, chairman of the Public Hygiene Council, said in an interview with The Straits Times in February: "My own impression is that the last couple of years were particularly bad. Behaviour began to shift, people no longer worried about being caught for littering.
"It is also the whole society changing. There are a lot of people who take it for granted that people will pick up after you."
Earlier this month, the first national litter-picking event was held with the hope of getting people to pick up after themselves and others, and to deter them from littering.
The islandwide, day-long Operation We Clean Up! saw more than 10,000 volunteers fan out across the country to pick up litter. The mass clean-up spanned 133 locations and resulted in the collection of more than 7,000kg of rubbish.
It was a good idea, but it remains to be seen if people will actually change their habits and behaviour for the better.
Another area that can do with more enthusiastic responses from the ground is domestic recycling.
Singapore wants to have an overall recycling rate of 70 per cent by 2030. For years, it has succeeded in pushing up this rate, from 49 per cent in 2005 to 60 per cent last year.
DISMAL RESULTS
But when it comes to domestic recycling, the results are dismal.
In 2013, the domestic recycling rate was only about 20 per cent, compared with the 61 per cent overall recycling rate. Last year, the rate for domestic recycling fell to 19 per cent.
The poor showing was in spite of national efforts to make domestic recycling convenient for residents.
In September, the National Environment Agency (NEA) achieved a long-term environmental goal of having one recycling bin placed at the foot of each Housing Board block.
In January last year, the HDB said it would install recycling chutes in all new HDB blocks, with throw points on every floor, after an encouraging pilot programme in Punggol.
The drop in the domestic recycling rate last year was largely attributed to an increase in food waste output. About 788,600 tonnes of food were thrown away last year, with only 13 per cent recycled, even though food now accounts for about 10 per cent of all waste in Singapore.
This is one problem that the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources is trying to tackle, most recently with a pilot programme to be conducted this year. Two hawker centres will each get a recycling machine to convert food waste and leftover food into compost or water.
Another recycling initiative is the seven-month electronic waste recycling pilot organised by the South East Community Development Council, the NEA, Panasonic and e-waste recycler Cimelia. It collected about 10,200kg of recyclables from over 1,800 pieces of e-waste contributed by residents. The programme is now being expanded to five more neighbourhoods in Marine Parade.
The need to recycle more has grown over the years, as Singapore's landfill will run out of space between 2035 and 2045, if the nation continues to dispose of more than three million tonnes of rubbish a year.
KEY FACTOR
While there are many initiatives and programmes to get Singaporeans to go green, they are effective only if people do their part.
To be sure, some people are genuinely clueless about how to be eco-friendly, and that is where education comes in.
But having the right attitude is just as important.
In an NEA study done from 2009 to 2010, two in 10 people did not think they were littering if their serviettes were blown away by the wind. Three out of 10 thought leaving rubbish on a park table after a barbecue was not littering.
Such mindsets have to change.
To be fair, there are areas in which Singapore has done well.
It reduced its carbon intensity - or the amount of carbon dioxide emission per dollar of gross domestic product - by 30 per cent between 2000 and 2010. This was way ahead of the average decrease of only 0.12 per cent globally.
Singapore also implemented the Energy Conservation Act, which took effect in April 2013, that requires large energy users such as waste-management firms to appoint an energy manager, monitor and report energy use, and submit energy-efficiency improvement plans.
More and more buildings are also meeting the Building and Construction Authority's various Green Mark standards, part of a scheme that rates buildings on their environmental impact and performance.
It was launched in 2005 and as of September, there were close to 2,200 buildings which met Green Mark standards.
Over the years, the Government has run many programmes and campaigns to educate and encourage Singaporeans to be environmentally friendly.
But until its people consciously do their part through good habits for the sustainability of Planet Earth, all the talk of being green is merely lip service.
The winning bidder will be tasked with leasing and maintaining food waste recycling machines, and training cleaners and stallholders at two hawker centres - as Singapore moves towards becoming a "zero-waste nation".
Channel NewsAsia 18 May 15;
SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday (May 18) called a tender for an on-site food waste management pilot to be run at Ang Mo Kio Block 628 Market and Tiong Bahru Market. The tender closes at 4pm on Jun 4.
NEA said in a press release that the two-year pilot aims to test the economic viability and operational feasibility of food waste segregation and recycling in hawker centres, as Singapore moves towards becoming a “zero-waste nation”.
The winning bidder will be required to provide the leasing and maintenance of two recycling machines, which will convert segregated food waste and leftover food from hawker stalls to either compost or water. The machines are expected to reduce the volume of food waste by at least 90 per cent per day, NEA said.
The company will also need to provide training and infrastructure for cleaners and stallholders to properly segregate the food waste, as well as submit project reports that will help authorities assess the success of the pilot.
The agency revealed that the two markets were selected for the pilot based on the number and mix of stall types, as well as the space available for food recycling facilities. Each of them is estimated to generate more than one tonne of food waste per day.
This hawker centre pilot - which is expected to launch in Q4 - is one out of two food waste management experiments planned by NEA for the year. The other aims to examine the economic viability of district-level food waste collection and off-site treatment at a centralised recycling facility, and will be conducted in Clementi.
- CNA/hs
Two hawker centres to get new food waste recycling machines
SIAU MING EN Today Online 19 May 15;
SINGAPORE — Food waste recycling machines will be placed at two of Singapore’s larger hawker centres in a two-year pilot, as part of the authorities’ overall efforts to curb the growing volume of food waste in Singapore.
These machines are expected to reduce the volume of food waste at the hawker centre by at least 90 per cent each day.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) called for a tender yesterday for vendors to supply the machines at Tiong Bahru Market and Ang Mo Kio Block 628 Market.
Contractors will have to lease and maintain two food waste recycling machines that can convert one-tonne worth of food waste from the hawker stalls to either water or compost. They are also expected to provide training and infrastructure for cleaners and stall holders to properly segregate food waste, said the NEA.
“The pilot aims to test the economic viability and operational feasibility of food waste segregation and recycling in hawker centres, as part of the Government’s efforts to move towards being a zero-waste nation,” a spokesperson said.
The tender will close on June 4, and the pilot is expected to be launched between October and December.
The two hawker centres were chosen based on the number and mix of stall types they had, as well as the space to house the machines. The centres at Tiong Bahru and Ang Mo Kio have 342 and 219 stalls respectively. TODAY understands that a good mix of stalls from these centres would provide more representative pilot results.
The pilot was first announced by Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu in March.
Food waste accounts for about 10 per cent of the total waste generated in Singapore, but less than 15 per cent of it is recycled. Last year, 788,600 tonnes of food waste were generated, of which only 13 per cent was recycled. The rest of the food waste was disposed of at incineration plants, then landfilled.
Over the past 10 years, food waste has increased by about 48 per cent and is expected to rise further with a larger population and greater wealth.
Commenting on the pilot yesterday, Ang Mo Kio Block 628 Market’s hawker association chairman Lim Joo Song, 65, said while the pilot is a good idea, some hawkers were concerned with the extra work involved in segregating the food waste.
Mr Lim, who has been selling fresh seafood at the centre for 25 years, is also worried about machine breakdowns if the food waste isn’t properly segregated.
With a food recycling machine within the centre, Tiong Bahru Market’s hawker association’s general affairs representative Tan Soon Cheah, 54, felt it would make the recycling process cleaner as food waste would not be left in the open for long periods.
He suggested monetary incentives to encourage stallholders to change their mindsets and make a conscious effort to separate their food waste.
According to the tender documents, contractors will have to provide a project report every three months detailing the amount of food waste processed and incident and training reports, among other things.
At least once a day, contractors have to man the basic operations of the machine together with the cleaners, weigh and record the amount of food waste input, and the contaminants removed, among other tasks.
Contractors also need to have at least one year of “successful experience” in processing food waste in Singapore or elsewhere, and have sufficient trained personnel to provide service support.
Eco-Wiz, a local supplier of food waste digestors, has expressed interest in submitting a bid for the tender. “It’s very good for us to participate and try to encourage more food waste (to) be recycled rather than to go to the incinerator,” said chief executive officer Renee Mison, who believes Singapore will move in the direction of food waste recycling eventually.
A food waste digester with one-tonne capacity can cost about S$100,000 and take up about 15 sq m of floor space, said Ms Mison.
Supplying food waste digestors to hawker centres instead of hotels could mean a longer training period in the segregation of food waste, she added. “You are dealing with hundreds of different stall owners, so you have to educate them one by one.”
Cutting down food waste with machines
The National Environment Agency called a tender for a food waste management pilot to be run at two hawker centres. One company, Eco-Wiz, says it will be bidding for the tender.
Nur Afifah Ariffin, Channel NewsAsia 21 May 15;
SINGAPORE: Food waste accounts for about 10 per cent of total waste generated in Singapore. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), 788,600 tonnes of food waste was generated in 2014, and only 13 per cent – or 101,400 tonnes of that amount was recycled.
The rest of it was disposed of at incineration plants and then landfilled.
NEA this week called a tender for a food waste management pilot to be run at two hawker centres.
One food waste management company, Eco-Wiz, said it will be bidding for NEA's tender. It will have to provide on-site recycling machines as well as relevant training for cleaners and stall-holders. It has helped more than 30 food establishments in Singapore recycle their food waste.
Swissotel Merchant Court’s General Manager Rainer Tenius said: "We are recycling approximately 1 tonne of food waste every day which, considering our total waste in our hotel, is approximately a 45 per cent reduction of our waste."
The hotel uses a waste disposal system to do the job. After food waste is segregated, it is dumped in another machine. Inside, microbes will decompose the food waste, which is done at a rate much faster than under natural conditions.
The sludge produced is then run though a grease separator and filtered. The process produces water that can be reused for various purposes, such as landscaping.
While the process looks simple, Eco-Wiz said the biggest challenge will be to train users about the importance of segregating food waste.
Eco-Wiz CEO Renee Mison said many cleaners feel “stressed out” about food segregation.
"We have a training programme and we simply train them on how to segregate the food waste with two different bins and we are going to tell them that it is important to segregate it from the source,” she said.
Marina Bay Sands uses a similar waste management system. It has five of such machines and recycles about 1.3 tonnes of food waste a day. The integrated resort is already looking at ways of improving its processes.
Executive Director of Sustainability at Marina Bay Sands Kevin Teng said: "We are looking at real tech-savvy ways to understand where our waste comes from. We are constantly looking at new and better technologies - whether it's a better enzyme mix or a new anaerobic process, whatever it is, I think we'd want to be at the forefront of that."
NEA's pilot food waste management programme is expected to be launched by the end of this year.
- CNA/dl
Azim Azman The New Paper AsiaOne 19 May 15;
Peace and quiet.
That's the reason two men have made St John's Island their home away from home.
Mr Supar Saman, 67, says: "On the mainland, I can't sleep because there's so much noise.
"You can hear motorcycles and cars, even at night."
He and Mr Mohamed Sulih Supian, 69, are the last people still living on the sleepy island, a 30-minute ferry ride away from Singapore.
To get there, take the ferry from Marina South Pier. Return tickets cost $18 and the trip takes you first to St John's Island, then to Kusu Island.
A spokesman for Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) says St John's Island gets about 2,500 visitors a month.
The 39ha island has served different purposes in the past.
It was a quarantine station for migrants in the early 20th century. Later, it housed a rehabilitation centre for opium addicts.
Today, St John's Island is a haven for flora and fauna, with holiday camps for those who want to be closer to nature.
Mr Supar is the island's caretaker and he has been living there since his family moved here from Johor in 1955.
He was offered a caretaker role when SDC took over the running of the island in 1972.
The serious-looking Mr Supar works five and a half days a week but stays on the island even during his time off.
His official duties include monitoring the boats that arrive at the island's jetty, doing minor repairs to the holiday bungalows on the island and ensuring that visitors to the island know what time the last ferry leaves.
Unofficially, he also makes tea for the cleaners who work on the island.
"I just want to do it," he says.
He has a three-room flat in Chai Chee, where his wife, 69, lives with their 32-year-old daughter, her husband and young child.
But Mr Supar prefers his blue hut on St John's Island, about 50 metres from the coast. His wife visits him once a week.
He says: "I'm just more comfortable here. When I'm bored, I can go fishing."
Mr Supar adds, as his weathered face breaks into a smile: "There (on the mainland), I just sit between four walls."
Fellow islander Mr Sulih, who was born and grew up on St John's Island, also likes the idyllic life there.
PRIVACY
Even though it's just the two of them on the island, they seem to prefer keeping to themselves, not out of hostility, but perhaps a sense of privacy.
When asked to if they could take a photo together, Mr Sulih demurs. "He needs to work," he says, pointing to where Mr Supar was talking to some visitors.
Mr Sulih too, was one of the island's caretakers, but retired in 2010.
Being able to go fishing anytime is one reason he still lives on the island.
He goes out to sea to check his fish traps every weekend when his eldest son visits. His other two adult children also visit with their families from time to time.
He says the haul has dropped in recent years, but he is still able to get about 20kg of fish whenever he checks his traps.
Now he spends his time mending and making more fish traps, and feeding the island's many cats.
Mr Sulih says he can live on the island because his wife, Madam Fauziyah Wakiman, 63, works for SDC as an island attendant at nearby Kusu island.
The couple have a flat in Pasir Ris.
While he hopes to continue living on the island, Mr Sulih is aware that it is not entirely up to him.
He says: "If it's possible, of course I want to live on the island."
M. HAMZAH JAMALUDIN New Straits Times 18 May 15;
GERIK: An all-out war against illegal logging in Hulu Perak in the past few months has uncovered various tactics used by loggers, including the latest one where those involved have buried the precious timber to avoid detection.
During a recent joint operation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Forestry Department at Temenggor forest reserve here, the team discovered three spots where the stolen logs were stacked inside and covered under tonnes of earth.
It was obvious that the culprits had been in a hurry as the red earth was still unsettled while parts of the logs could be seen exposed on the slopes.
In their desperate move to hide the evidence, the loggers had also dumped tree branches and other debris down the slope, causing nearby streams to become clogged.
The MACC has started targetting illegal logging in the interior of the 148, 870-hectare productive forest reserve, after the anti-graft agency first detected false tagging and declaration documents found on illegal timber taken out from the area in February.
It was not an easy task as the MACC had to station its staff at the main "matau" (timber collection centre) near the bank of Temenggor lake, about 45-minute boat ride from the Pulau Banding jetty.
This New Straits Times journalist joined the latest operation and spent a night in a `kongsi` (wooden long house for timber workers) before the MACC and Forestry Department convoy located the first spot where the logs were buried.
The convoy of several pick-up trucks had to make almost an hour trip into the jungle before it finally located the first site on a hilly terrain.
The team suspected something amiss when they realised that the red earth covered a plain the size of a football pitch. But there were no clear signs that logs could be found in the area until the team members started to dig the earth using spades.
To their surprise, they found the first log buried about a metre underneath, after digging for about 20 minutes.
Since it was impossible to dig out all the logs, checks made on the slope had enabled them to estimate the stacked logs to be as high as a two-storey building.
After the first success, the team moved to another location, which also took them about an hour to reach. Their earlier experience had made it easier for them to locate the logs at the second site, although they were buried in a deeper pit.
It seemed like the team had struck a jack pot when they also located the third site, not far from the second one. Menteri Besar's Office integrity head Anuar Mohd Noh said it was the first time that the enforcement agency had discovered such a modus operandi used by loggers.
"The culprits may have panicked and took such a drastic action to conceal their illegal activities. Most likely, they are waiting for the operation to end before they will extricate the logs and send then to the main "matau"," said Anuar who is MACC Assistant Commissioner.
He said initial checks made on the buried logs showed that they comprised of high grade timber, such as "merbau" and "meranti bukit", and those from the lower grade group.
"We believe that about 400 tonnes of logs worth more than RM1 million were buried at the three locations and the culprits are waiting for the right time to dig them out and sell them," he said.
It is learnt that MACC and the Forestry Department will find ways to bring the logs out of the pits, to enable the forensics team to confirm the timber species and how long they had been buried.
The logs will be seized before they are sold through open bidding. Initial investigations have also revealed that the latest discovery could have been related to earlier success, when the team found 84 trees that were fell outside the permitted 30ha compartment.
The finding had prompted the Forestry Department to initiate a major transfer with 20 of Hulu Perak staff were relocated.
Anuar said MACC would also investigate whether there was an element of corruption involved since the productive forest reserve, where controlled logging activities are allowed, should be monitored closely by the Forestry staff.
"We will leave no stone unturned, that is for sure. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir himself is very concern about illegal logging as it will affect the environment apart from reducing the state's earnings," he said.
Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/node/84630
Erwida Maulia Jakarta Globe 18 May 15;
Tags: Deforestation, deforestation moratorium, Environment Ministry, Greenpeace Indonesia, Indonesia environment, walhi
Razed land in the Tesso Nilo National Park, an ostensibly protected forest area in Sumatra’s Riau province. (Antara Photo/F.B. Anggoro)
Jakarta. Activists have criticized a presidential decree issued last week that extends Indonesia’s moratorium on new logging and plantation permits, saying it once again fails to offer strong law enforcement measures to ensure implementation and protect the country’s waning forests.
President Joko Widodo last week signed the new decree extending the deforestation moratorium, which was first introduced by his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in May 2011.
The original moratorium expired in May 2013, but Yudhoyono extended it for another two years, before Joko signed another two-year extension last Wednesday.
Environmental activists, albeit welcoming the extension, lament the president’s failure to fortify the regulation.
“The government’s move of extending the forest moratorium deserves appreciation,” Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Yuyun Indrayadi wrote on a blog post published on the NGO’s website.
“It is very regrettable, however, that the only thing changing from the previous moratorium is only [the decree’s] number and the period of validity. We’ve found no clauses whatsoever on stronger [law enforcement] and protection in the forest moratorium that will be in place through 2017.”
As many as 63.8 million hectares of Indonesian forests are included in the moratorium, meaning that logging should be strictly prohibited in the areas.
Yuyun, though, said the moratorium only covered old-growth forests and peatlands that remain free of concessions and are listed as state-owned forests by the Environment and Forestry Ministry.
Some of the forests that fall under the jurisdiction of local administrations are not included in the policy, and so are secondary forests and some primary forests that somehow have been given concessions that Yuyun thinks should also be rescued with the moratorium.
In total, 93.6 million hectares of forests should be protected under the moratorium, Yuyun said.
Law enforcement issues aside, Greenpeace estimates that as much as 48.5 million hectares of forests are facing deforestation threats because of the Indonesian government’s failure to identify all forests which need to be safeguarded.
Activists had campaigned for stronger deforestation moratorium months before the previous one expired last week, noting weak law enforcement and poor evaluation of implementation by the Yudhoyono administration.
In 2012, a year after the ban was first imposed, Indonesia surpassed Brazil’s rate of deforestation, becoming the fastest forest-clearing nation in the world, according to a study published last year in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya had talked with NGOs as they voiced their recommendations for stronger enforcement.
Arief Yuwono, the deputy minister for environment degradation control and climate change, also earlier said that several issues needed to be addressed before the new moratorium draft could be finalized — including law enforcement, synchronization with other related, existing regulations and the one-map reference issue.
Overlapping maps of concessions, community forests and protected forests have been identified as among the causes of problems in implementation of the deforestation ban by the previous administration.
It looks as though the government’s plan is to just extend the ban first, and perhaps revise the substance later.
“We’ve gathered recommendations from ministry officials and NGOs. But we need more detailed discussions [in order to strengthen the moratorium],” Siti said in Jakarta on Monday, according to newspaper Indopos.
Another Greenpeace activist, Teguh Surya, questioned Siti’s promise for more deliberations.
“The statement from the Environment and Forestry Ministry [...] offers hope for a stronger moratorium,” Teguh said.
“But the timetable remains unclear, when exactly can the moratorium be strengthened, while forested areas not included in the moratorium will remain prone to destruction. Strengthening the moratorium urgently needs to be done.”
Zenzi Suhadi, a forest campaigner at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), took note of revisions, which are allowed every six months, for areas covered by the moratorium under the new decree, but expressed concern that these would be vulnerable to abuses.
“The evaluations available every six months should not be used to revise the maps but to enforce the law, against evil scenarios and practices by corporations and some government officials conspiring to legitimize their deeds through concessions,” Zenzi said.
He scrutinized the ban’s exclusion of forest clearance in areas under the “principal concessions,” with which plantation companies can operate as long as they participate in safeguarding protected forests near their areas, as well as the exclusion of deforestation to grow rice and sugar cane.
“Land grabbing by corporates these days is being conducted on behalf of food and energy resilience [...] Large-scale sugar cane plantations and rice fields will become the new cause of deforestation in Papua, Maluku and South Sumatra,” Zenzi said.
On the other hand, he added, the moratorium fails to exclude small-scale uses of people’s forests by local people.
“One of the worst points of the presidential decree is its tendency to hamper the implementation of the president’s own commitment to allocating 12.7 million hectares for people’s forests,” he said.
Where have our Common Mynas gone?
Bird Ecology Study Group
Bukit Brown – an introduction tour (24 May’15 @9am)
a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History
Scalloped Spiny Lobster (Panulirus homarus) @ Pasir Ris
Monday Morgue
Bryna Singh The Straits Times AsiaOne 18 May 15;
Some of the many trees in the Garden City that is Singapore have hidden stories of people who tended them, benefited from them, worked under them, slept under them or loved them. An ongoing exhibition at the National Library captures these tales and relationships between Singaporeans and their special trees.
Singapore, Very Old Tree is spearheaded by freelance writer Adeline Chia and artist Robert Zhao, both 32, who worked with two researchers from last December to unearth these individuals and their stories.
Ms Chia says: "Although people know Singapore as a Garden City, the image is ultimately an impersonal one of anonymous trees and gardeners. We want to give these gardeners faces and names."
They trawled through local nature blogs and National Parks Board (NParks) publications, and approached NParks for contacts of tree lovers and community gardeners. The team also went through newspaper archives for tree-related stories, tapped on their networks of friends and put out calls on social media.
Three months later, they had a list of about 80 trees, from which they picked 30 for the project.
Some of them are majestic old specimens, such as the angsana near the entrance of the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort. It is believed to have been planted in the 1880s by the British when the artillery battalion was stationed on the island, then known as Pulau Blakang Mati. With a girth of 10.2m, it is also the biggest angsana tree here. It has been cared for by gardener Mohd Yusri Abdullah for more than 20 years.
Other trees involved dramatic rescues and student activism, such as the Malayan Banyans next to the Goodman Arts Centre and at the Tanglin Trust School. Both were saved following calls by ex-students for their preservation.
Many other stories feature "humble and relatively young trees, never quite imperilled", says Ms Chia. "But we included them because they meant something to someone." Cobbler Goh Cheng Lam, 70, is fond of a Bodhi tree in Sungei Road, under which he has been operating for the past five years. Apart from giving him shade, it is also where his friends and regular customers hang out.
A home-grown rambutan tree reminds nature lover Goh Yue Yun, 57, of her late mother who planted it. "My late mother used to fertilise the tree with her diluted urine," she says. Ms Chia and Mr Zhao say some of the challenges they encountered in their project include pinning down the trees' ages and getting full views of the trees in photographs.
On the trees' ages, Ms Chia says: "We needed to rely on recollection by witnesses, look at old pictures to see if the trees were there before or compare a specimen of similar size with a known age."
Mr Zhao says most of the images were difficult to capture because the trees are "just too big". "Even with a wide-angle lens, I had to stand pretty far back."
He took the black-and-white pictures with the trees seen in full and the humans tiny to emphasise the contrast in scale. His illustrator-friend Sokkuan Tye hand-tinted the images in vintage-postcard style.
The project, mostly funded by the Singapore Memory Project's irememberSG Fund as part of the SG50 celebrations, also consists of a publication - a booklet of stories, a set of 30 postcards of the exhibited images and a map showing about 20 interesting trees in Singapore. The publication will be sold only a year from now as part of the irememberSG funding agreement.
Mr Zhao says: "The work is about spending a little more time considering something that is ubiquitous in the Singapore landscape. While we celebrate Singapore's Golden Jubilee, it is important to remember that some trees on our island easily surpass 100 years."
brynasim@sph.com.sg
Do you have an old tree that means something to you? E-mail stlife@sph.com.sg
Irresistible draw of durian trees
At least twice a year, Mr Teo Teah On, 66, dons a construction helmet, construction boots, a long-sleeved shirt and pants, and heads into the Bukit Panjang forest at night to search for durians.
Alone, he sets off at 9pm from his flat along Jelapang Road in Bukit Panjang and treks about 3km into the jungle.
All he carries are a gunny sack for the durians, a torchlight and a wooden stick to fend off wild boars and snakes.
He has no fear, only immense enthusiasm for the potential loot out there.
"Once I know durian season is here, I just need to go out and pick the durians. I can't sleep knowing that they are lying there, waiting for me," he says with a laugh.
Mr Teo, a father of two who runs a carpentry business, has been doing this for seven years now. It all began when he was exercising in his neighbourhood and came close to the fringe of the forest.
He saw people emerging from it with gunny sacks filled to the brim with the thorny, pungent fruit.
As he is a lover of the fruit and a believer in durians that are picked from trees growing in the wild ("they don't have added fertilisers or chemicals"), his interest was immediately piqued.
The durian pickers he met told him there were about 100 durian trees scattered throughout the wilderness.
Previously, he would buy durians from one of his friends who picked them from the forests here.
Since he started collecting the fruit himself, he has been watching the durian season like a hawk.
He says the trees usually flower twice a year and the fruit falls about 100 days after that. Older trees between 60 and 70 years old can bear up to 200 fruits each time, while younger trees around 30 years old bear about 50 fruits each.
How does he know these things?
"I just do," says Mr Teo, who adds that once you start tracking these things and talking to people, you will learn.
"Walking in and out of the forest is a good workout. You will sweat a lot."
He saw the durian trees flowering in March this year, so he estimates the fruit fall to be in July.
He says poor weather conditions last year meant no fruit for the pickers, so they are all hoping for a good harvest this year.
It is unclear who has authority over the part of the forest where these durian trees grow. Under National Parks Board guidelines, it is illegal to pick up fallen fruit in places under its purview.
But the four other pickers Mr Teo usually hangs out with pick durians for personal consumption and not to sell. There is no competition among them either.
"We are all friends," says Mr Teo. "We meet in the forest, sit down for a chat, pick the durians, chat some more and then we head home."
There is no particular durian tree that they seek out because every tree's fruit has a slightly different taste, he says.
The sizes of the durians in the Bukit Panjang forest and the colour of their flesh vary, says Mr Teo.
But the trophy durians are those picked from a self-dubbed "XO Tree", a name referring to a popular variety of durians famous for its slightly alcoholic aftertaste.
"You can't tell which tree this is. You know only after you've eaten the fruit," he says.
On each trip, he usually collects up to 20 durians, weighing about 10kg.
Once home, he and his wife, Mrs Teo Cheng Hway, 58, set about opening the shells and getting the flesh packed into air-tight boxes, before tucking them away in the freezer. Stored this way, the fruit can last for up to six months, says Mr Teo.
Some boxes are refrigerated and consumed within days.
"I will complain that there's no space to put anything else and about the slight odour for those few months," says Mrs Teo, who helps her husband with his business. "But I like to eat durians and since the ones my husband brings back are the only ones I eat, I just have to deal with it."
The saga of childhood memories
A saga tree in Mount Emily park holds special childhood memories for Ms Kong Yin Ying , 19.
Ms Kong, who is waiting to enter university, recalls competing with her older brother Jun Yin, 20, to find odd-shaped and odd-coloured saga seeds. This was years ago when the siblings were four and five years old respectively.
They were then attending Mount Emily Kindergarten and the tree was right behind it.
"The tree was enormous to me then. It towered above me and its roots were many and large," says Ms Kong.
But its presence did not intimidate the siblings, who would run towards it after school.
"We dug around the tree's roots with our bare hands, competing to see who would find the oddball saga seeds first," she says.
"We were not interested in the normal red ones. We were keen only on those that either had flat edges or had orange-yellow hues."
Whoever found one would call out to the other and they would gaze at the strangely formed seed with a mixture of curiosity and wonder. They would usually leave the seed behind, though.
Explains Ms Kong: "What made things exciting was the process of searching for the seeds, rather than keeping them."
She believes there are only a handful of "really cool ones" that she has stashed away "somewhere at home".
After their kindergarten days, she and her brother pretty much stopped going to the tree, except once when they were in primary school because they happened to be in the area. So for nearly 10 years, Ms Kong had not seen the tree. This year, she has re-visited the tree twice as part of the Singapore, Very Old Tree project, and says it reminded her of a "simple, fun part" of her life.
"As my brother and I dug for the seeds, we were sharing moments together. Life was not complicated then. No sibling rivalry, just quiet companionship," she says. Today, the Pat's Schoolhouse branch in Mount Emily stands in place of the siblings' kindergarten.
Principal Melina Quek, 53, says her teachers are familiar with the tree. Its large canopy provides shade for the children when they organise outdoor picnics or classes. But the little ones are not allowed to root about for saga seeds.
"Children are curious and we don't want them to put the seeds into their mouths or stuff them up their noses," says Ms Quek.
Ms Kong, on the other hand, has no qualms about taking her children there in future to do what she did.
A favourite of bridal couples
Once there was a tree and engaged couples loved the tree. Some days, these couples would come and take their wedding photos there. And they were happy.
Photographer George Wong, 37, was introduced to this casuarina tree at Upper Seletar Reservoir by a couple about 10 years ago.
They had told him that this tree was one of their dating spots and wanted it captured in their wedding photos.
When he saw the tree, Mr Wong was struck by its beauty. "It has a nice shape and is exactly between two benches. The background - the reservoir - is also clean, so the various elements make for a good picture."
Over the years, he says, word spread about the thriving casuarina to the extent that it has been called "the wedding tree".
Since his first shot there, he says he has snapped more than 100 couples at the tree.
It is such a popular site that he recalls waiting 30 minutes one weekend because several couples were waiting to have their pictures taken there.
"Everyone is on a tight schedule, so among the photographers, we'll usually just signal to one another and say something like, 'Bro, I'm next, yeah?'" says Mr Wong.
Another photographer, Mr Seah Yu Hsin, 43, is also aware of this "wedding tree". He first came across the tree during a run around the reservoir about eight years ago and says he made a "mental capture" of its potential for a photo shoot.
A few months later, a couple told him that they wanted an outdoor location for their pre-wedding photo shoot that had natural elements. He recommended the spot to them and has been shooting couples there since.
"Whether you take the pictures by day or by night, they always look good," he says.
According to him, the tree's prominence spread thanks to social media because people are quick to post their pre-wedding pictures online.
One of the couples he shot in 2009 found out about the tree that way.
Bank executive Cassandra Cheok, 35, recalls seeing other couples' pictures with the tree online. While the tree holds no significance to her, she says she found it "very elegant and photogenic". Together with her then-fiance and their golden retriever, she had her pre-wedding pictures taken there.
"It was the first and only time I'd been there," she says. So, for years, the tree gave marrying couples a spot for a beautiful photo and the couples were happy. But not really. Some couples insist on not having their pictures taken there, says Mr Seah. "They will tell me that everyone goes there now," he explains.
Over the years, the wedding tree has witnessed much change. Mr Wong recalls there used to be a playground a short distance away from the tree which was also a photo-worthy spot, but that is no more.
Also nearby is a little stone path that leads into the water. That area has since been barricaded, possibly because the steps are worn and unsafe.
But the area near the tree is still a good spot for relaxing and photo taking.
Muses Mr Wong: "Things around the tree have changed, but it has stayed the same."
And the tree seems happy.
Could landed properties in low-lying areas or even future HDB flats be made to float on flooded waters? We talk to experts to find out.
Monica Kotwani, Channel NewsAsia 17 May 15;
SINGAPORE: Could landed properties in low-lying areas or even future HDB flats be made to float on flooded waters?
These ideas may sound far-fetched, but countries like the Netherlands are already experimenting with such features to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as flooding and rising sea levels.
Experts said Singapore, too, should use the impact of climate change to its advantage to create a city where building design is in sync with its environment.
Singapore, 60 years from now, will be a lot warmer, if no action is taken against global carbon emissions. It could result in an even more pronounced urban heat island effect – when a built-up area is warmer than rural or natural surroundings as heat is trapped by dense building environment.
Urban greenery, such as vertical plants on buildings and rooftop gardens, have become familiar features in new developments around Singapore. They are known to bring down temperatures and reduce energy consumption of buildings.
But there needs to be a bigger picture to withstand future temperature rises.
Said Dr Kua Harn Wei, Associate Professor, School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore: "Building design has to be in sync with the design of a neighbourhood at the city level or even at the precinct level. Right now, with more understanding of how all these different pieces work, we are beginning to see more enlightened design where all these pieces are coming together. But remember that we are facing a somewhat uncertain future, in which the effect of climate change will be upon us. So we need to keep promoting such integration.”
FLOATING HOUSES: HOMES OF THE FUTURE?
In the last 35 years, the Straits of Singapore has risen by almost six centimetres. But this is nothing compared to an almost 80-centimetre rise in sea level by 2070, in a worst-case scenario.
Some countries are preparing for the rising waters with innovative ideas.
The Netherlands is experimenting with amphibious and floating houses. Floating houses are built on foam bases covered in concrete and they float with rising waters. After the floods, they sink back with the subsiding waters.
Amphibious houses are built on similar bases, but anchored to the ground with thick posts. They can also rise over flood waters.
One expert on coastal waters said local homes prone to floods as a result of sea-level rise could look to this model. These include homes in Loyang, Pasir Ris and even Sentosa Cove.
Dr Wong Poh Poh, Coordinating Lead Author, Coastal Systems Chapter of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: “A lot of people want to live on water chalets, so why can't you have water chalets for the entire year? It's possible. Look at our East Coast. What if you built another barrier outside, much higher, and that barrier protects an inner lagoon which can be flooded? So at anytime, any higher sea-level rise can be absorbed by this lagoon.”
Dr Wong said the lagoon will act as a safety measure, while being used for social and economic activities.
- CNA/dl
LEE YEN NEE Today Online 17 May 15;
SINGAPORE — The Republic’s sole butterfly garden within a housing estate will double in size next year, as part of a S$1.5 million upgrading project announced today (May 17) by Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Ms Irene Ng.
The garden, located next to Block 124 Tampines Street 11, will be expanded from 132.5 sqm to 267 sqm to include a raised observation deck for visitors as well as educational panels on butterflies and waterfall features. Outside the enclosure, a community plaza will be built for activities such as yoga and qigong.
Ms Ng, who had pushed for the garden’s launch in 2011, said: “I took a personal interest in developing the new plans for the butterfly garden and am glad to see so much support for it, not only from our own residents, but also from nature lovers from all over the island. When completed, the upgraded Butterfly Garden will be an iconic landmark in Tampines.”
Besides the upgrading of the garden, Ms Ng today also shared other plans for the estate, including a 1km cycling track along Tampines Street 11 that residents can take to the Tampines Round Market, neighbourhood shops as well as the butterfly garden. Construction is expected to be completed by September.
More greenery will also be added to the area by the fourth quarter of this year, in the form of small pockets of linear gardens lining both sides of the street.
Ms Ng also said Blocks 124 to 127, 138 and 139 on Tampines Street 11 will undergo the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme. Residents of the affected blocks will first be consulted for ideas and suggestions on how to improve the estate, which can include adding new features such as a children’s playground, fitness corner or new letter boxes.
The ABC Waters Project Walk begins on Jun 28 and it will see participants exploring Singapore's water locations.
Sara Grosse, Channel NewsAsia 17 May 15;
SINGAPORE: Residents of Hong Kang North can look forward to a new trail next month which explores Singapore's water locations.
The ABC (Active Beautiful Clean) Waters Project Walk was launched on Sunday (May 17) by Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor after the completion of a park connector walk programme which encouraged residents to adopt brisk walking.
The "GO!GO!GO! Park Connector Walk" was first launched by the Hong Kah North Active Aging Committee in 2013 to encourage residents to adopt brisk walking as a regular exercise by bringing them to the rustic parts of Singapore.
64-year-old Monsiah Mansor has been participating in the park connector walk programme since 2013.
Every month, she and her friends walk to different parts of Singapore to re-discover the island's heritage sites. It also improves her overall health.
Residents participated in a total of 18 sessions and covered areas such as Woodlands, Sengkang, Bedok Reservoir and East Coast Park. Nearly 4,000 people have taken part in the initiative.
Each participant walked at least 6,250 steps per session and accumulated over 112,500 steps through the whole park connector walk programme. They walked more than 100km over the course of two years, and collectively have burned over one million calories.
But as the GO!GO!GO! Park Connector Walk by the Hong Kah North Active Ageing Committee comes to a close, a new trail is on the horizon.
The ABC Waters Project Walk will see residents exploring 14 water locations in Singapore on the fourth Sunday of each month. The walk begins at the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park on Jun 28 and will take participants to places such as Yishun Pond, Sungei Whampoa and the Rochor River. It will end at Jurong Lake in March 2017.
Dr Amy Khor, who is also Hong Kah North's Grassroots Advisor, said: "Programmes like this help to motivate them, create some interest, because it is not just about exercising ... but also about going to some fun places."
Dr Khor hopes the initiative can be extended to other constituencies to promote the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.
- CNA/xq/al
ABC Waters walks launched
Melissa Lin The Straits Times AsiaOne 19 May 15;
A series of walks that will take participants around 14 ABC Waters locations throughout Singapore over the next two years was launched yesterday.
Organised by the Hong Kah North Active Ageing Committee, the first walk will take place at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park on June 28. Other locations include the Lorong Halus Wetland, Jurong Lake and the Geylang River.
The walks will take place on the fourth Sunday of each month.
ABC Waters stands for the national water agency PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters programme, which converts waterways into recreational areas.
Hong Kah North MP Amy Khor, an adviser to its grassroots organisations, said the programme aims to encourage residents to exercise while taking them to places they may not have visited before.
Dr Khor, who is also Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, said the walks are open to all, even those not residing in Hong Kah North.
She was speaking at Bukit Batok Nature Park, where the last of another series of walks took place yesterday morning.
Around 400 people walked 5km from the park to Hong Kah North Community Club (CC), the closing stretch of a programme that took participants to Singapore's park connectors.
An average of 200 people joined the monthly walks, which started two years ago.
Housewife Monsiah Mansor, 64, who took part in all 18 walks, said she joined the programme alone but soon made friends along the way.
"I feel that my health has improved, I don't feel so weak any more," she said, adding that she is keen to take part in the new series of walks.
Those interested in signing up for the ABC Waters walks can do so at Hong Kah North CC or Gek Poh Ville CC.
There is a $2 fee for the shuttle bus service which takes participants from the CCs to each walk's location.
Erwida Maulia Jakarta Globe 17 May 15;
Singapore. The Singaporean government has called on financial institutions operating in Southeast Asia to exercise caution in funneling funds to palm oil producers, saying scrutiny on the sector continues to intensify with recurring problems in transboundary haze.
Banks have acted as an important source of capital for the region’s palm oil industry, Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said last week.
Citing a 2010 report by BankTrack, he said lenders provided an estimated 24 percent of the total financing needed for the sector globally, with more than $50 billion invested in the Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil sectors alone during the decade prior to the release of the study.
“The number has grown significantly since then. And this includes local sources of capital from within Indonesia and Malaysia,” Balakrishnan said in a keynote speech during the second annual Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources held last Wednesday.
With the recurring issue of transboundary haze, he added, calls have intensified for companies and individuals “all the way down” the supply chain to be held accountable for deforestation — the main culprit behind recurring forest fires in Indonesia and haze affecting neighbors Singapore and Malaysia.
“Due to the environmental scrutiny and the campaigns by environmental NGOs, banks have now also become part of the watch list,” the minister said.
“And my plea to you, therefore, is please pay attention to this and remember the questions will be asked not only of the companies involved, but also of the financiers and the banks behind the industry.”
Balakrishnan added that lenders and other financial institutions are now expected to be more responsible in conducting background checks on palm oil companies. It is not enough to merely see whether their clients would be able to pay their loans and interest rates, he said.
How the companies derive their resources, their methods of production, the environmental, social and even political risks they face all must be assessed before banks decide whether they should invest in the business.
“These [steps] have to become part and parcel of standard due diligence,” Balakrishnan said.
Financial institutions, including banks and investors, have significant influence over the market and the proper behavior of producers, he added.
Representatives from the financial sector speaking at Wednesday’s dialogue conceded that more banks are gradually recognizing the opportunities in sustainable financing. They are also beginning to understand the need to assess their clients’ environmental and governance records to protect themselves from potential reputation damage.
“It makes good business sense, not just from a reputational perspective, but also from a credit prospective. Generally, a company that actually does good from an environmental perspective would be in better financial health,” said Vincent Choo, chief risk officer of OCBC Bank.
However, Jeanne Stampe, the Asian finance and commodities specialist of environmental group WWF International, sees domestic banks from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations lagging behind in implementing environmental, social and governance standards.
Both bank management and shareholders simply don’t see the need or urgency to take action, she said.
Stampe added that she also recognizes a lack of senior-level prioritization, a lack of capacity and lack of pressure coming from both regulators and company stakeholders to take the issue seriously.
The Singapore dialogue raised concerns that sustainability, which should be a new basis for growth in the region, has instead become a greater challenge amid falling commodities prices across the globe, as well as the constant need to create more jobs in Southeast Asia.
However Simon Tay, the chairman of Singapore Institute of International Affairs, the organizer of the event, said there was still hope for a better outcome.
“If we look at the industry itself, we see signs of change,” Tay said during his opening speech.
“More larger and leading companies among us here today recognize and are responding more strongly to the sustainable challenge as a business issue; not merely as public relations.”
Minister Balakrishnan added that there was an increasing trend among consumers to demand for environmentally friendly products — and that this was not just a phenomenon in developed countries.
He cited a Nielsen survey conducted last year, which reported that 55 percent of the online consumers across 60 different countries said they were willing to pay more for products and services provided by companies that are committed to providing positive social and environmental impacts.
“This propensity of willingness to buy socially responsible brands is actually strongest in the Asia-Pacific region, where 64 percent of respondents [had] this preference. And I believe this preference will stay, with their wallets that will grow stronger in the years to come,” Balakrishnan said.
“The industry sectors that can first develop standards and labels on sustainable products will have a head start,” the minister added.
Arief Yuwono, the Indonesian Environment Ministry’s deputy for environment degradation control and climate change, said promoting sustainability would also be a key priority for President Joko Widodo and his administration.
The Indonesian government is currently seeking to extend the moratorium on granting new land concessions for plantations and mining activities, which expired on Wednesday.
“We’re working on the final draft, and we hope it will be issued very soon,” said Arief, who also addressed the audience at Wednesday’s dialogue.
He conceded that several issues still needed to be addressed before the new moratorium draft could be finalized, including law enforcement, synchronization with other related, existing regulations and the one-map reference issue.
Overlapping maps of concessions, community forests and protected forests have caused problems in implementing the deforestation moratorium since it was first introduced by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2011.
Joko has agreed to extend the moratorium, Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya revealed after a meeting with the president at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“Proposals to strengthen [clauses in the moratorium] from Walhi, Kemitraan, Sawit Watch, WRI and others are very much appreciated and will be summarized by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for a follow-up,” ministry spokesman Eka W. Soegiri said in a press statement on Wednesday, naming Indonesia’s leading environmental groups.
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