Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at World Wildlife Day Regional Youth Symposium 2024
Feb 24, 2024
Good morning and welcome to the third edition of the World Wildlife Day Regional Youth Symposium.
I would like to say a very big thank you to our youth stewards, speakers, and partners from Singapore and across South East Asia and the region, for making this year’s Symposium possible.
Importance of Wildlife Conservation in South East Asia
I am very happy to see so many friends and partners – almost 500 of you – representing 15 countries including all 10 ASEAN Member States. I would like to thank Mandai Nature, for your generous support through NParks’ Garden City Fund, which has allowed many speakers and young people from Southeast Asia to join us in person.
Our region where we live - South East Asia - it is a biodiversity hotspot. Our forests, coastal mangroves, and waters are home to more than 25% of our world’s known plant and animal species.
But, it is under threat.
For example, we are vulnerable to climate change. Extreme weather events, and rising temperatures, are becoming more frequent and intense. This can disrupt ecosystems, leading to a decline in biodiversity.
Human activity also threatens our region’s biodiversity: habitat loss, illegal wildlife trade, and poaching of native species.
Importance of Youth Stewardship
We are gathered here to be part of the global and regional effort to tackle these challenges. I am glad to see so many young people stepping up for wildlife conservation, and joining us at this Regional Youth Symposium.
This Symposium was organised by passionate young people under NParks’ Youth Stewards for Nature programme, together with their mentors.
They have prepared an exciting line up of programmes including ten different workshops and a new Youth Showcase component, which will feature youth-led conservation initiatives across Southeast Asia.
To the organising committee, thank you for your hard work, passion, commitment and belief for a better, greener future. I would like to invite these 25 budding young leaders of our nature community, to please stand and be acknowledged.
In fact, the work does not stop here. Two alumni organisers of the past two iterations of this Symposium, Steffi and Wai Kit, are also involved in kickstarting a global initiative – the CITES Global Youth Network.
The CITES Global Youth Network builds on the important work of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to protect endangered species from the threat of illegal wildlife trade.
The network’s inaugural meeting will be held in Singapore this April, where young environmental leaders from all over the world will come together to chart the vision for the CITES Global Youth Network, and to spearhead their own initiatives to address illegal wildlife trade worldwide.
We look forward to hosting this, and to seeing the network grow in the years to come.
Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation
Each year on 3rd March, we observe World Wildlife Day, to celebrate our planet’s rich biodiversity. The theme of this year’s World Wildlife Day is ‘Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation’.
It resonates strongly with us in Singapore.
First, we have been making use of technology to enhance our biodiversity monitoring and wildlife conservation efforts.
For example, we deploy a network of camera traps in our forested areas to monitor the populations of native species such as the Lesser Mousedeer. We are exploring the application of AI visual recognition to help researchers analyse the footage from these cameras.
We also use satellite tracking technology to study the migratory behaviour of shorebirds, and are developing acoustic monitoring technologies to facilitate remote surveys of songbirds and marine species.
Second, as we transform our island city-state into a City in Nature, we harness technology to carefully balance our development needs with the conservation of key natural habitats.
We adopt a science-based approach to land-use planning, using ecological modelling tools to identify ecologically important sites and corridors, and to prioritise them for conservation. In doing so, we optimise the role that our green and blue spaces play as refugia for our biodiversity, and enhance ecological connectivity within our urban landscape.
Third, we use science, technology, and digital innovation to combat illegal wildlife trade.
For example, we partnered with Microsoft and Conservation International to develop a mobile app to help enforcement against illegally traded shark species at our border checkpoints.
Using AI and machine learning, Fin Finder enables our enforcement officers to quickly identify protected shark species from photographs of their fins. Officers can then flag suspicious fin shipments for further DNA testing. This way, we are able to detect and deter illegal wildlife trade more effectively.
Let me share with you another example. Our NParks’ Centre for Wildlife Forensics has successfully applied a more cost-efficient method of genotyping to analyse a record number of 2,346 pangolin scales in a single study to date.
Swiftly pinpointing geographical origins of pangolin scales helps us to identify and tackle trafficking networks and poaching hotspots. We have shared our findings with the international community, and hope that they will serve as valuable support to their investigation and enforcement efforts.
Even as we make good use of science, data, and technology, we also recognise the important contribution that young people can make.
For instance, NParks mentored two alumni organisers of this Symposium, Sean and Janelle, to use data analytics to demonstrate the effectiveness of Singapore’s domestic elephant ivory ban on online trade. The two of them have co-authored a paper that was recently published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Like them, many of you are here at this Symposium because you want to make a difference for wildlife.
Take this opportunity to build meaningful connections with your fellow youth representatives and collaborate on impactful projects to enhance the conservation of biodiversity in our region.
Conclusion
We have so much to learn from each other, and I hope this annual Symposium will continue to be an anchor event for the youth network on wildlife conservation in South East Asia, for many years to come.
I wish all of you a fruitful and meaningful Symposium. Together, let’s secure the long-term future of biodiversity in our region.
Thank you.