World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working in the field of wilderness preservation, and the reduction of human impact on the environment. In 2006, WWF established its office here in Singapore. Have you ever wondered about the kind of work WWF actually does in Singapore? Does WWF carry out conservation work here?
What does WWF SG do for Singapore?
Unlike other SEA countries, WWF Singapore does not engage in conservation work but rather its main focus in Singapore is to foster corporate responsibility partnerships, educate the Singaporean community and to obtain donor funds.
It addresses issues such as haze pollution, seafood sustainability and illegal wildlife trade in Singapore by collaborating with the government and forming partnerships with businesses to move towards sustainable practices.
One example is PACT (Plastic ACTion). It is a business initiative started by WWF Singapore to aid businesses in moving towards a circular economy. Some notable businesses who have pledged their support to PACT are Saladstop, Udders Ice Cream and Pastamania. (You can play your part in helping our environment by supporting sustainable businesses!)
To read further more about corporate social responsibility and businesses’ sustainable policies, you can head to my previous blog post here. For more information on PACT, you can head to the link here.
WWF has attained many achievements in Singapore such as banning the ivory trade, PACT and reducing the consumption of sharks’ fin. However, WWF has had a limited impact in spreading awareness amongst Singaporeans on an individual level. A list of schools that collaborate with WWF in WWF’s Eco-Schools Programme can be found here. While it is a great programme that challenges students to tackle environmental issues and even reduce their environmental footprint, only 20 out of 143 secondary schools in Singapore partner with WWF to make environmental sustainability an essential part of their school curriculum.
However, this cannot be fully blamed on the organisation as there is only so much influence it can exert on schools without receiving full support from MOE. Undoubtedly, the onus is on our education ministry to increase awareness of our climate crisis. The figure below is a list of key outcomes set by MOE and it is evident that environmental sustainability is not a key facet of the curriculum, or even a part of it at all.
Therefore, it is critical that we urge the government to make it mandatory for local schools to include environmental education in their curriculum.
Ultimately, being aware of the environmental situation is imperative in combating our climate crisis. Therefore, while WWF tries its best to mitigate climate change, I recommend that WWF Singapore uses its pool of resources to further enhance its education efforts by amplifying collaboration with the government.
Thank you for reading 🙂
References:
- (WWF, no date). Retrieved from: https://www.wwf.sg/wwf_singapore/careersatwwf/palm_oil_trade_and_demand_specialist.cfm
- Giant Panda Eating Bamboo. [Image]. Retrieved from: https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/species/giant-panda#gs.4s9yxz
- Desired Outcomes of Education. [Image] Retrieved from: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/education-system/desired-outcomes-of-education
- (Yeo, 2015). Education paves the way for sustainable future. Retrieved from: https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/education-paves-the-way-for-sustainable-future
- WWF Eco Schools Programme. Retrieved from: https://www.wwf.sg/wwf_education/eco_schools_programme/
Hi Letitia,
Thank you for sharing about the importance of educating our future generations about our climate crisis, especially since it would be one of the most relevant problems that they would be facing. I would also like to add that the effects of education may be slower to come to fruition, since it involves the next generation, but it is definitely still important as a long term solution to the climate crisis.
Edwin
Hi Edwin! Thanks for reading! Yes, I agree with you! However, I would like to add that WWF Singapore’s eco-schools programme spans from all ages from pre-schools to post-secondary institutions such as international schools and ITE (Sorry I left out this piece of information in my blog post). Thus, what I meant to say was that the programme will educate both our future generations and soon-to-be working adults. Consequently, the effects of education may not be as slow as we think it may be because the current generation of young adults can already start exercising their voting rights and consumer power to make a change in combating our climate crisis. 🙂
Cheers,
Letitia
Hi Letitia,
I actually never really knew the role WWF played in combating environmental issues in Singapore, but after reading your post I have got a better idea of it. WWF has indeed played a pivotal role in spreading awareness in issues such as wildlife trade and consumption of shark’s fin in Singapore. Looking at the first page of statistics in a WWF survey done on shark’s fin consumption in Singapore,(https://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/singaporesharkfinreport2016_1.pdf) we can indeed see that the general consensus of the public is that they are against shark’s fin consumption. Given that more than 70% of the respondents were of tertiary education level and above, I was wondering if there could be some correlation between education level and “environmental literacy”.
But despite the general consensus against shark fins, Singapore was indentified as the 2nd largest trader of shark’s fin in the world in 2017, which is rather depressing. Nonetheless, I believe it will take time and we will get there. I truly agree with you that environmental education should be made mandatory, especially in children’s formative years, so that hopefully, environmentally-friendly mindsets and cultures will manifest within our society.
Cheers and happy blogging,
Song Thye
Hi Song Thye!
Thank you for reading! Wow, I’m glad that my post got you interested in WWF’s work in Singapore, particularly the consumption of sharks’ fin!
Yes, there is a possibility of a relationship between education levels and environmental literacy! However, I think that proving this relationship will require more research. In the survey that you shared, WWF did not state the methodology it used to conduct its survey (stratified random sampling, cluster sampling etc). As a result, it is difficult to come up with a conclusion based on WWF’s survey results alone.
The two journal articles below studies the relationship between environmental literacy and education level. However, they focus more on environmental literacy within a university itself, such as how different university majors lead to varying levels of environmental literacy.
1. Sara Arnon, Nir Orion & Nurit Carmi (2015) Environmental literacy components and their promotion by institutions of higher education: an Israeli case study, Environmental Education Research, 21:7, 1029-1055, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2014.966656
2. Michael D. Kaplowitz & Ralph Levine (2005) How environmental knowledge measures up at a Big Ten university, Environmental Education Research, 11:2, 143-160, DOI: 10.1080/1350462042000338324
Surprisingly, both articles found that the university major with the least environmental knowledge is in fact, a major in Education. I found this extremely concerning because teachers play a fundamental role in shaping students’ social behaviour and transferring academic knowledge. Anyway, I might expand on this in my next blog post so stay tuned! 🙂
Cheers,
Letitia
Hi Leticia!
Thanks for pointing out the limitations of the MOE curriculum in educating students on environmental sustainability 🙂 It really made me think back on my past 12 years of education and realize how little it emphasized on protecting the environment. Aside from that one school trip to Singapore Zoo where the staff gave a talk about biodiversity loss and that one section in General Paper classes that taught us how to tackle environment-related essay questions, I really cannot think of other ways the education system has taught us about environmental sustainability. Even the “Save My World” advertisement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1409N1oVJ4) raised more awareness about environmental problems than my school 🙁 This really worries me about how the future generations will turn out and how the Earth will be affected.
– Wei Qiang
Hi Wei Qiang!
Exactly! As I was writing this blog post, it really dawned on me that our Singapore education system hardly emphasised on the importance of our environment! 🙁 Anyway, you may be interested in my next blog post because I’ll be talking about environmental education and what can schools do to make it effective.
Thank you for reading!
– Letitia
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