Hello guys and welcome back! This week, we will be looking at our mangroves from a more sobering point of view, that is, their gradual disappearance over the years and what the future holds for them. I think it is a widely accepted albeit lamentable fact that in Singapore, our green spaces are being cleared at a pretty fast rate to give way to all kinds of infrastructure for the sake of national development, like roads, houses or other amenities. The sad truth is that our mangroves are far from exempt from this fate.
Throughout the 19th century, mangroves used to cover a whopping 13% of Singapore’s mainland area, as well as large swathes of our islands such as Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin (Hsiang 2000). Since then however, these extensive pristine ecosystems have made way for our country’s rapid industrialisation and development such that mangrove cover was reduced to only 1% of Singapore’s land area in the 1990s (Hsiang 2000). In fact, a recent study calculated that only 6.44km2 of mangroves remain here today, of which another 33% are postulated to be lost in the next 10 years (Friess et al., 2019).
All these numbers point to the same dreadful fact: we have lost most of our mangroves and are bound to lose even more of the little we have left. I couldn’t help but wonder to myself, why do our mangroves seem to be the ecosystem being destroyed at the fastest rate here? It appears that the reason lies in the fact that Singapore is a rapidly developing island nation, with coastal developments such as shoreline reclamation, aquaculture conversions and marina developments (Turner & Yong, 2002). This is a recipe for disaster for our mangroves, one of our most prominent coastal ecosystems. Evidently, our status as an island nation is both a boon and a bane.
However, not all hope is lost! Many of our remaining mangroves forests have been gazetted as nature reserves or received conservation status, including our famous Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR), the Khatib Bongsu mangroves, as well as the Labrador Nature Reserve. And the wonderful thing is that, these mangroves are not just mere forests but are actually renowned regionally for their rich biodiversity! For instance, our SBWR was recognized by the East-Asian Australasian Shorebird Site network by Wetlands International in 2002 (Bird, Chua et al. 2004), while our Mandai mangroves are being extensively studied regionally as a role model for mangrove conservation amidst urban developments (Friess, Phelps et al. 2012). NParks have also been doing an awesome job in promoting public education towards our mangroves, with the construction of boardwalks in places like the Pasir Ris and Labrador mangroves to allow people to get close to the plants and critters, coupled with cute signboards and infographics along the boardwalks to provide little snippets of information on the cool biodiversity there.
So, while our mangroves are indeed disappearing as a whole, it is heartening for me to know that the little we have left is in pretty good stead. Then again, wouldn’t it be a dream if we could reverse this downward trend and begin to restore our mangrove cover back to its glory days? It was only while doing research for this blog post that I learnt that the Pasir Ris Mangroves that I had grown to love as I grew up was actually not natural but regenerated on reclaimed land back in 1996! I couldn’t believe it. The place that taught me so much about nature was actually borne from the work of human hands. This has given me renewed hope that mangrove restoration is truly possible here in Singapore, and I’ll be blogging more about this in my next post.
Stay tuned and see you next week! Cheers!
References:
Bird, M., et al. (2004). “Evolution of the Sungei Buloh-Kranji mangrove coast, Singapore.” Applied Geography 24(3): 181-198.
Friess, D. A., et al. (2012). “Mandai mangrove, Singapore: Lessons for the conservation of Southeast Asia’s mangroves.” Raffles Bulletin of Zoology(SUPPL.25): 55-65.
Friess, D. A., et al. (2019). The State of the World’s Mangrove Forests: Past, Present, and Future. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 44: 89-115.
Hsiang, L. L. (2000). “Mangrove conservation in Singapore: A physical or a psychological impossibility?” Biodiversity and Conservation 9(3): 309-332.
Turner, I. M., & Yong, J. W. (2002). The Coastal Vegetation of Singapore. In 955125664 744066239 C. Briffett & 955125665 744066239 H. C. Ho (Authors), State of the natural environment in Singapore (pp. 5-23). Singapore: Nature Society.