Speech by Minister Lawrence Wong at Unveiling of Plans for Keppel Discovery Wetlands
Aug 27, 2016
I am very happy to join you this morning at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) Learning Forest.
We all celebrated last year when SBG was inscribed as our first UNESCO World Heritage site.
But getting the inscription is really just the beginning of a lifelong journey to conserve, protect and enhance our beautiful Gardens.
We see many UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world facing challenges – challenges due to over-crowding, the impact of urban development, and the lack of proper maintenance. These are real problems. We must never allow this to happen to the SBG. Thus, we need careful deliberate planning to conserve the botanical wealth and beauty of SBG for future generations.
We are committed to doing this. You may have heard that the Learning Forest will open in phases from early next year. We will expand the nature area within the Gardens to help protect the primary rainforest in the Gardens. This rainforest is very precious to us – it is one of the oldest remnants of forest in Singapore. Some of the trees have been around for almost 200 years!
Within the rainforest, the SBG team did some research – they combed through 19th century maps and conducted site surveys, and found out something interesting about its history.
This area was once a freshwater forest wetland. Wetlands could be seen on maps dating as far back as the 1860s. Unfortunately, by the 1920s, the wetlands had disappeared although you can still see remnant populations of wetland plant species in the area today.
So I’m very happy that this morning, we are unveiling plans to restore the wetlands, to enable Singaporeans to experience a freshwater forest wetland, right in the heart of our city.
As you can see around us, this site is still a work-in-progress and it may be hard to imagine what the wetlands will be like. Let me try to describe some key features.
First, we have the Wetlands itself. It is an area where we have identified as the original location of a stream running through the forest with a rich wetland forest habitat. One of the trees is the Marsh Pulai, a tree with swollen buttresses that grows in flooded ground. So we are making a pioneering effort to recreate the wetlands and we will be calling it Pulai Marsh, after the tree.
Secondly, we will have a 50m long Boardwalk running through the marsh. This will allow visitors to experience the wetland habitat. Also, as you walk through the boardwalk, there will be information signage and we will try to recreate the journey that was made by the Garden’s early pioneering botanists, like Henry Ridley and EJH Corner.
Thirdly, we will have the Orchid Islands. These are specially designed to replicate how our native orchids once grew in the wild. Many of the species which will be displayed are critically endangered; some were thought to be extinct but have been brought back by NParks’ conservation programmes. And it will be first time Singaporeans will be able to admire our wide variety of native orchids in their natural habitat.
While there will be much to discover for all visitors and nature enthusiasts, the wetlands will also benefit ecological research in Southeast Asia. The restored habitats, with its native flora and fauna will be important living laboratories for ongoing research work in restoration ecology.
To complement the work of restoration of the wetlands, NParks is also launching a new “Flora in Singapore” project. Under this project, the NParks team aims to catalogue all the plant species that can be found in Singapore. They expect the work to take around a decade. All the information will be published over 14 volumes and will be made available in a comprehensive collection. I think this is very important work which will help us to do proper documentation and research.
The plans that we are sharing today are a labour of love by our NParks’ officers, who have been painstakingly protecting, curating and preserving our greenery in Singapore. They have spent much time and effort to develop all these plans, including the recreation of the wetlands and the flora of Singapore project that I mentioned earlier.
NParks will continue to do its best to implement these plans. But we also need the support of our partners and stakeholders.
This morning, we are very happy to have Keppel Corporation with us and we would like to sincerely show our appreciation to Keppel for their support for the wetlands restoration project. Keppel will be making a contribution for the creation of habitats, trails and boardwalks, as well as a plant collection of more than 200 species. But it is not just financial contributions. Keppel has also committed to volunteer at the Wetlands starting today. They will be helping us to plant trees later. In recognition of Keppel’s generous support, we are naming the wetlands as the Keppel Discovery Wetlands.
I hope that many more corporations will join us to protect and enhance the Gardens. The Botanic Gardens is our first UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is our national treasure, one that belongs to all Singaporeans. We want everyone to be able to play a part in its future.
This applies not just to SBG, but to developments all over Singapore. We have plans to continue to make Singapore green. If you read this week’s edition of The Economist, it featured the otters in Singapore. The Bishan 10 otters have become famous. They have returned to Singapore and all over Singapore, people are tracking their movements. They are all over social media and we even named them the emblem that most represents Singapore in this year’s survey done by The Straits Times. The Economist wrote: “The return of Otters to the City is proof of the success of Singapore’s efforts to green itself.”
We are doing even more than this. We are also enhancing biodiversity in Sungei Buloh, in Kranji Marshes, in Pulau Ubin. In fact, in Pulau Ubin, there is another kind of otters. They are the oriental small clawed otters. They are also critically endangered and we are protecting it. We are even building otter dens in Pulau Ubin so that they can have a nice home to flourish safely.
Our founding leaders and pioneer generation worked very hard to build a Garden City. So let us uphold that same spirit and ideals – to enhance our greenery and biodiversity, and make Singapore a City in a Garden. Thank you.