| Forest Science Crapped in Singapore |
1st
January 2008
|
| The
asymmetric description given to the forest at
Mandai lacks latitude. Recent reports
amount to bad education. Rightfully, it is an 'open country' which
Corner defines with precision; its openness
an attribute not dissimilar to that of forest edge and forest gaps
and functions no less different from them. |
| This is where openness allows for ready re-seeding from adjacent primary forests; where light-demanding plant species opportunate and promote natural succession and genetic re-mixing; where snakes and other reptiles come out to bask; where softwood trees thrive and woodpeckers build homes in them; where openness allows specialized raptors unhindered hunting rights over open ground of the forest edge; where the best of both world - under the sun of the open country and the shade of the adjacent primary forest - affords animals additional foodcrop from secondary vegetation. |  |
| It is also where, under this twin primary-secondary combination, biodiversity is richest - an ecotone which has been fully recognised and endorsed as a Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO - a reserve consisting of "an inviolate pristine core surrounded by a buffer zone of forest managed for sustainable production and may also include cultural landscapes of plantations, orchards, fields, and pastures. It exemplifies well the World Conservation Strategy concept of sustainable utilization with the maintenance of full diversity and species richness: man living in balance with nature". |
| It is worthy to note that 'spa' is not included; neither does the "maintenance of full diversity and species richness: man living in balance with nature" includes any other human activities thereof that promote heavy human encroachment. Such activities of permanent human presence (24 hours a day) cannot hope to limit disturbance to natural processes. They will inhibit animal activities with dire consequence and eliminate for good their biological services to the primary forest as well. |  |
| How
easily it is thus to forget, for example, that woodpeckers serve as
tree-doctors to the hardwood trees of the primary forest and how,
particularly in Singapore, naturalized softwood species like the African
Tulip have presented useful treehole-abodes for them. This is
just one of many important but subtle ways how a secondary forest
serves a neighbouring primary forest. Prof Peter Ng's allusion to transforming the open country of Mandai to the "forest of old" liken to "the primary jungles which covered the island 200 years old" is illusionary. There is simply no such thing as there is no such thing as "primary jungles"; jungle being a word for secondary vegetation. This can be forgiven because Prof Peter Ng is a marine biologist and a crab-expert, and not an expert in forest sciences. However, he cannot be excused for putting forth laxity as "animals pottering around" as crabs - I know for sure - do not "potter" around either. It is not something wild animals do except perhaps humans with nothing much ado with their empty hands and mind, or trapped unhappy animals in enclosures - for example - the Night Safari. Better words, giving sciences better credence, would be - foraging, hunting, making passage and taking cover. These are but a few things wild animals do in a buffer zone. The open country in Mandai is such a buffer zone. It is not only a unique habitat on its own right but also a quinessential corridor for animal passage around the fat-lady Singapore Zoo. It provides the present link between the forests along Bukit Timah Expressway and those of Mandai Road (see map). Building a spa in the buffer zone will effectively cut off this link and forces more animals into the highways at night; the tragic outcome would ironically be greater provision of animal carcasses (roadkills) for the Raffles Museum which ironically is headed by Prof Ng himself. |
|
Buffer zones are indeed important; important enough to be one of the
key recommendation adopted by the United Nations General Assembly
when it proclaimed May 22 (2007) as the
International Day of Biological Diversity. It was a day Singapore
celebrated with much fanfare at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Many
local 'doyens' of conservation were present and applauded, including
Prof Ng, who gave a speech. While we may forget his words, we should
remember how the Convention of Biological
Diversity (UN) recommends "creating refuges and buffer zones"
as measures mitigating |
 |
| climate
change. Why? The convention subscribes to the fact that "the
links between biodiversity and climate change run both ways: biodiversity
is threatened by climate change, but proper management of biodiversity
can reduce the impacts of climate change". |
| Another fact that has been negated is that even if we are thrown on a hyperbolic trajectory back 200 years ago, we still will find secondary forests, grasslands, open countrys and such. Singapore has not been and will ever be (even with the total annihilation of the human species) be an island dripping over to the shores with primary forests. There are as much biodiversity of species as there are habitats of varying degree of disturbance both 200 years ago and now. Looking at it |
| critically in the scale of space and time, the most mature and salutary thinking of forest scientists would be one that treats all non-primary habitats as intermediate stages in the life cycle of the primary forest. It is a dynamic process then and now, alive and to be appreciated; |  |
| 'secondary'
is thus by no mean a lesser god for want of 'primacy'. This is especially
critical in making assessment of habitats which are directly adjacent
to primary forests. We must reflect on the transfer of ecological
services between the two vegetation-types and bring with it a dimension
of evolution at work. Mandai is such a case; being outside gazetted
nature reserves is not an excuse for land conversion, let alone development
of a spa in its place. Prof Ng's "be pratical" should be
reserved for a politician, not a scientist. He is killing the primary
forest in Mandai per se. |
| One
of the major problem facing today's nature conservation is the abusive
use of 'biodiversity'. It has become a poster-boy of sort. We hear
so much of it day in day out, but understand it so little. We have
made it out to be the one-size-fit-all cure for all our environmental
woes. We are told 'more is good' but that is far from the whole truth.
Biodiversity is not a absolute number game, and it cannot be understood
away from ecology and intimate ground-truthing. Unscrupulous developers and landscape architects would have you a full list of 'primary forest species' from 'nature experts' and make you believe secondary or open forests are inferior. They will convince you that they can plant a primary forest for you too. It has happened in Sentosa and Lazarus Island last year. And it is happening lately in Mandai too. Science has been drawn to the door of lunacy at the hands of skulduggery. We have much to thank the late T.C. Whitmore for his dedicated work on the dynamics of the tropical rain forests - their structure and functioning, plant diversity and distribution against the backdrop of ecology and evolution. He confirmed for us that "the most species-rich forested landscape will be one that includes patches of secondary forest recovering from a big disturbance and consisting of pioneers, and patches of primary forest composed of climax species". The components of species richness cannot thus be taken seriously away from this light. Holding this precious knowledge at heart, I hope, those who chose to walk the path of truth shall walk into the new year of 2008 with eyes open wide. This is truly the sorry state we are in. |
Related information:
1)Mr Wong Yew Kwan's Eco-tourism: Choose Site with Care
2)The MrBrown Show: Nature Calls
3)what Prof Peter Ng said
4)all other related reports
5)Google Map showing corridor / link for animal crossing
6)Google Map showing alternative site proposed by NSS
7)response to another misinformation by Prof Peter Ng on another forest affected by IR development in Sentosa.
8)Read Beatitude for Amateurs
9)Pangolin found at Bukit Panjang 30 Jan 2008[location: not far from the forests along Bukit Timah Expressway]