Sustainable development in Singapore
Arriving in Singapore last week, I was immediately struck by the changes in the landscape since I was last here for an extended period in the mid-1990s. It’s bigger and glitzier and more ‘Western’ than ever. This caused me to ponder just how much more development can take place on this tiny land mass.
The BBC news science and nature site gives some clue in a report on an article recently published in the journal Nature which states that in Singapore ‘key habitats have shrunk by 95% since 1819’ and that ‘forest reserves comprising only 0.25% of Singapore’s area now harbour over 50% of the residual native biodiversity’ with more than 95% of the estimated 540 square kilometres of original vegetation having been entirely cleared. Using data collected from nearby peninsular Malaysia the overall loss of biodiversity in Singapore has been calculated to be at least 28% (881 of 3,196 recorded species). Not a great deal of room to manoeuvre me thinks …
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