Demarcate new reserves with care

I REFER to National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan's announcement on Nov 10 about the two new nature reserves.

The gazetting of Sungei Buloh as a nature reserve marks a big milestone for conservation efforts in Singapore. Sungei Buloh is a major wetland habitat with mangroves, tidal ponds and mudflats, which are alldisappearing from our landscape.

At last, the hordes of wading birds, such as sandpipers and plovers, are assured of a feeding and resting station when taking refuge here in their annual migration.

It is the first for a nature area outside the public-park system to be accorded legal protection after Independence - a historic event indeed.

For Labrador Park, it will be the first for a rocky coastal habitat, if the remaining natural shoreline to the west of the Tanjong Berlayar Park is included.

We applaud our Government's decision on these two new reserves. It shows the world that we are making progress in the spirit of the Rio Biodiversity Convention (1992).

Sungei Buloh is the result of an unique cooperation involving a diverse group of people - caring expatriates, determined local conservationists and responsive civil servants.

Efforts now must be made to demarcate along ecological lines, the boundaries and buffer zones of these new reserves so that long-term sustainability can be assured. Conservation and management plans have to be more than site-specific, in order to sustain their ecological diversity and viability.

The science of landscape ecology has revealed that an ecosystem does not exist or function in isolation from the surrounding context. In the case of Sungei Buloh, this is particularly critical as there is evidence showing a linkage between the area and the adjacent mudflats at Kranji Estuary and Sungei Mandai, in terms of the tidal influence on the feeding and roosting patterns of wading birds.

More research and management care have to be expended, and the Nature Society is prepared to work more closely with the National Parks Board towards achieving these objectives for the benefit of all Singaporeans.

HO HUA CHEW
The Nature Society (Singapore)