Nature Reserves by Kian Boon and Jize

Singapore should still set aside land for nature reserves, even though there is limited land space in Singapore. Singapore faces a number of environmental problems, including but not limited to scarce freshwater resources and loss of our unique biodiversity. Due to our lack of these resources, it is more needed than ever to preserve and protect these nature reserves for the future generations of Singapore and for our benefit. Losing such natural resources could lead to some serious consequences such as harming our economy due to our lack of natural resources, or loss of biomedical education and research due harming our biodiversity. One example is how Singapore has been named “A Garden City” for over 200 years due to our unique biodiversity and natural phenomena, but due to our rapid development in the past 30 years, we have faced the mass decline of natural reserves to make way for urban development. The extent of this decline in natural reserves is so great that Singapore went from having 13 nature reserves to only 4 in the span of less than a century. Another example is how we have lost much of our biodiversity in the previous years. We were once a mainly forested area, with many species living on our small island within our own unique biodiversity, but due to urban development, many species are now endangered or are already extinct, while less migratory birds fly to Singapore as the years go by, aware of the harm that we have done to their forests and habitats which is their home. Thus, due to all the environmental problems that we could face, Singapore should still set aside land for natural reserves, even though there is limited land space in Singapore.