Singapore will plant 1 million trees by 2030
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Loading... - Feng Huang
- 27 Sep 2022
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Languishing in the soft, silty mud, the living fossil looked as if it didn’t have a care in the world as it feasted on the fish left stranded in the tidal mangrove pools of the Sungei Buloh wetlands. However, the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) might have been a little less at ease if it knew nearly 90% of its mangrove habitat in Singapore has been lost over the past century.
But now Singapore is looking to reverse this loss by mounting an ambitious reforestation campaign. In August 2020, the Singapore government announced the launch of the new Sungei Buloh Park Network, a 990-acre park in the northern portion of the island that is a refueling site for migratory birds and is home to oriental hornbills, otters, saltwater crocodiles, and many other species.
Sungei Buloh is part of a wider project that aims to plant 1 million trees over the next 10 years as the government tries to improve habitat quality for the city-state’s wildlife while improving living conditions for its human residents.
Mangroves are an Important Habitat
The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve has a storied history. It is where Singapore’s smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) were first discovered in the 1990s after they were assumed locally extinct, and it is also the location of the critically endangered Eye of the Crocodile tree (Bruguiera hainesii). The city-state has 11 of the world’s last remaining 200 trees.
The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is also an important stop for migratory waterbirds as they fly from Russia and Alaska to Australia and New Zealand along the East Asian-Australasian flyway. By forming the Sungei Buloh Park Network, Singapore is effectively tripling the size of the protected area comprising the reserve. This new park aims to safeguard the biodiversity of multiple areas, including the Kranji marshes, the Mandai mangrove and mudflat, and the coastal Lim Chu Kang Nature Park, which is state land. Within this patchwork of habitats, researchers have recorded 279 species of birds. These areas comprise many different kinds of ecosystems; Lim Chua Kang Nature Park alone boasts mangrove, woodland, scrubland and grassland habitats, and its diversity has attracted coastal birds such as the gray-headed fish eagle (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus) and baya weaver (Ploceus philippinus).
Geography professor Dan Friess from the National University of Singapore has studied Singapore’s mangroves for 11 years and heads up the university’s Mangroves Lab, which focuses on the study of coastal wetlands in Southeast Asia. He says Singapore’s mangroves have an outsize ecological impact.
“Singapore’s mangroves punch way above their weight,” Friess told Mongabay. “We only have a small area of mangroves, but within that we have huge biodiversity. For instance, in the U.S. they only have three species of mangrove plant species, while in Singapore you can find 35 different species of plant species in its mangroves.”
Singapore’s mangroves are relatively easy to access, providing a living laboratory for researchers who have uncovered many of their secrets through decades of study.
“In the Mandai mangroves alone researchers have found 20 species that are new to science,” Friess said. Read More…
