wetlands
a publication of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Vol 9 No 3

otters: water puppies of the reserve

Hillgrove secondary school adopts the reserve

singapore's first wetland reserve:
what does this mean?

reintroduction of
native mangrove flora

some interesting notes on
the sunbirds

volunteer training at mawai eco camp

Commonwealth secondary school student volunteers

home on high
  
singapore's first
wetland reserve:
what does this mean?
by calvin w l ho
a lawyer by training and also a volunteer of the wetland reserve

Seventeen years preceding his seminal classic An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argued in The Theory of Moral Sentiments that the proper operation of a capitalist system depended on a broader system of social values. One of the social values discussed may be interpreted as social responsibility; that is, the responsibility towards one another and the responsibility towards the environment that we live in.

The natural environment of Singapore is part of the Rainforest of Malesia, together with Brunei, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. The indelible mark of a Rainforest is the immense diversity of life that it sustains, and for the land that it covers, this abundance of life is the wealth of that land. Singapore has been a land of such wealth. Perhaps no one has better articulated this than Alfred Wallace in The Malay Archipelago when describing the biodiversity in Singapore between 1854 to 1862: "The vegetation was most luxuriant, comprising enormous forest trees, as well as a variety of ferns, caladiums, and other undergrowth…Insects were exceedingly abundant and very interesting, and every day furnished scores of new and curious forms. In about two months I obtained no less than 700 species of beetles…[a]lmost all these were collected in one patch of jungle, not more than one square mile in extent, and in all my subsequent travels in the East I rarely if ever met with so productive a spot."

The landscape of 21st century Singapore has vastly changed. In the year 2000, the Nature Society of Singapore reported that 97 (39%) of all native coastal plants (251) are extinct and only 4% of mangroves remain. And of all seed plants, 26% are extinct and 65% threatened. As for mammals and birds, 25% of 91 mammals are extinct and 58% of the remaining 53 mammals are at risk, while 34% of birds are extinct and 38% of the resident bird species are at risk. Fortunately, these losses have not gone unnoticed. In recent years, positive actions have been taken to remedy the situation.

On 10th of November 2001, the Minister of National Development, Mr Mah Bow Tan, announced the designation of Sungei Buloh Nature Park as a nature reserve under the National Parks Act. Officially opened on 6th of December 1993, this 87-hectare of mangrove, fresh water ponds and secondary forest was designated a forest reserve from as early as 17th of April 1890. The fresh water and secondary forest habitats may have been subsequently introduced by early settlers in the Sungei Buloh (which means Bamboo River in the Malay language) area since the Straits Settlement Government Gazette Reports of the Botanic Gardens described the area to consist entirely of mangrove swamp in 1890. To mark its new status as Singapore's first wetland nature reserve, Sungei Buloh Nature Park has been re-named Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

The importance of this designation lies in the official recognition of the need to carefully manage what little remains of Singapore's natural wealth. Before this, there was concern that after 2008, the natural environment of the Sungei Buloh area would be cleared for urban development. With its designation as a nature reserve, however, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve has been legally set aside and reserved for (1) the propagation, protection and preservation of the plants and animals in the nature reserve, (2) the study, research and preservation of objects and places of aesthetic, historical or scientific interest; (3) the study, research and dissemination of knowledge in botany, horticulture, biotechnology, and natural and local history; and (4) recreational and educational use by the public.

In other words, the residence that harbours the richly diverse community at Sungei Buloh, which includes up to 42% of all bird species recorded in Singapore, will now receive greater protection against human intervention and interference. In addition, the residents are themselves conferred a full range of legal protection, including freedom from disturbance, harassment and entrapment. To this effect, it is an offence to destroy, damage or deface any object of zoological, botanical, geological, ethnological, scientific or aesthetic interest.

The broad scope of protection provided under the National Parks Act and Rules is important because of its implicit recognition that it is inadequate to merely protect a wild animal or bird alone without regard for the environment that supports it. Accordingly, the broader protection supplements that provided under the Wild Animals and Birds Act, which safeguards all wildlife in Singapore, except for 6 birds (namely, the house crow, feral pigeon, white-vented mynah, purple-backed starling, Philippine glossy starling and common mynah). This legislation makes it an offence to kill, take and keep any wild animal or bird without a license from the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority. In addition, it also prohibits the setting up of traps for the capture of a wild animal or bird and the selling of any wild animal or bird, alive or dead.

To ensure the effectiveness of the intended protection, the National Parks Act and Rules also confer on duly authorised employees and agents at the nature reserve certain powers, including the power to require evidence of identity, power to order persons to leave the nature reserve and power of search and arrest, each of which may be exercised under specified circumstances.

Apart from these, marine life that dwells on the foreshore of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is also protected from abuse by the Fisheries Act and Rules, which prohibit the trapping of fish through the use of explosives and poison. In addition, the use of trawl nets is prohibited within three miles from the Singapore coast, measured from the low water mark.

It is important to remember that the effectiveness of legal protection is ultimately dependent on every Singaporean's recognition of his or her responsibility towards our common natural heritage and environment. At the most basic level, we must appreciate the intrinsic value of each species; that on careful examination, even the most simple of species can offer limitless knowledge and aesthetic pleasure. The affirmative act of conserving the Sungei Buloh area is an excellent manifestation of this. However, it is only the beginning of a fresh endeavour towards the restoration of some of the biological richness that has graced Singapore in its not too distant past. We now understand some of the problems that have arisen and others that will arise. By combining this understanding with technology, a workable strategy can be developed to supply the necessities and some of the comforts of life and still leave room enough for all the other species.

It is befitting to conclude with the words of Professor Edward Wilson, who observed that responsibility towards our natural environment should arise, not as a consequence of some special political interest lobby, but from an acknowledgement that "Earth, unlike the other solar planets, is not in physical equilibrium. It depends on its living shell to create the special conditions on which life is sustainable. The soil, water and atmosphere of its surface have evolved over hundreds of millions of years to their present condition by the activity of the biosphere, a stupendously complex layer of living creatures whose activities are locked together in precise but tenuous global cycles of energy and transformed organic matter. The biosphere creates our special world anew every day, every minute, and holds it in a unique, shimmering physical disequilibrium. On that disequilibrium the human species is in total thrall. When we alter the biosphere in any direction, we move the environment away from the delicate dance of biology. When we destroy ecosystems and extinguish species, we degrade the greatest heritage this planet has to offer and thereby threaten our own existence."
   
© Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve