SINGAPORE – Nicknamed “Pulau NTU”, Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) inexperienced campus attracts an enormous number of wildlife, and the college is taking a slew of measures to scale back human-wildlife battle and make the setting extra conducive for college students and fauna.
The measures vary from monkey-proof bins to monkey guarding workshops for college workers that educate a way to information the animals away from an space.
“We aim to become a City in Nature, by weaving nature more deliberately and intensely into our urban fabric, so that nature thrives within our city,” mentioned Minister for National Development Desmond Lee at a seminar with college students on Monday night (March 14).
Hosted by the NTU environmental membership, the 1½-hour Zoom webinar on human-wildlife coexistence additionally featured a panel of audio system: Dr Shawn Lum, president of Singapore’s Nature Society; Dr Vilma D’Rozario, director of the Singapore Wildcat Action Group; Professor Kwok Kian Woon, affiliate vice-president of well-being in NTU; and Associate Professor Valerie Du Toit-Low, deputy affiliate provost of residential training at NTU.
With extra growth initiatives within the works, the probabilities of human encounters with wildlife – and conflicts – improve.
NTU, which is situated subsequent to forests within the western catchment space, is extra conscious of this than most colleges. To guard in opposition to macaques foraging by way of garbage bins, as an example, it has put in greater than 1,200 monkey-proof bins round campus.
Having needed to relocate monkeys on campus to their pure habitat with the assistance of the National Parks Board (NParks), the varsity conducts workshops for employees akin to safety personnel on monkey guarding, a way that herds and situations monkeys away from an space.
The college can also be making efforts to teach college students in regards to the college’s wealthy biodiversity and wildlife etiquette, throughout induction of recent college students, and thru a handbook being put collectively by the NTU Earthlink membership on what to do when encountering wild animals on campus.
The webinar on Monday kick-starts NTU environmental membership Earthlink’s Biodiversity Week 2022, which has a line-up of webinars and actions geared toward elevating consciousness of the varsity’s wealthy biodiversity and wildlife.
Apart from monkeys, birds, butterflies and snakes, NTU has had visits from uncommon and endangered species, such because the sunda pangolin, oriental pied hornbill and the buffy fish owl.
NTU gives grants and awards for college students who provide you with initiatives on sustainability and environmental duty.
The college can also be exploring methods to enhance its college students’ appreciation of nature, by way of nature walks and an edible gardening programme, the place scholar gardeners get to seed, fertilise and harvest crops.
On the nationwide entrance, the Ministry of National Development (MND) is talking to constructing homeowners about utilizing chicken strike-proof home windows created from a unique kind of glass, as taller buildings pose a security risk to birds, notably migratory birds.
MND is finding out this risk fastidiously, Mr Lee mentioned.
Speaking in regards to the Government’s strategy in the direction of wildlife conservation, Mr Lee highlighted the significance and pressures of getting to strike a steadiness between maximising land use and preserving biodiversity as a small nation with a excessive inhabitants density.
Pressure on housing is barely set to develop, with demand growing, as an example, for Housing Board (HDB) flats as households get smaller.
There have been about three individuals in every HDB family final 12 months, in contrast with greater than 4 in 1990. Singapore now has a couple of million HDB flats and 400,000 non-public properties.
To obtain a steadiness, Mr Lee mentioned, the Government makes use of a science-based strategy to establish core biodiversity areas to preserve, join these areas by establishing nature corridors, and develop brownfield websites akin to golf programs and previous colleges, amongst different methods.
“Collectively, these strategies will allow us to steward our scarce land resources – for today’s use, and for future generations.”
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