ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Singapore’s efforts and experiences in conserving its native biodiversity as well as in infusing greenery into urban landscapes. Singapore is ‘one of the oldest urban sites in Southeast Asia to have been thoroughly excavated’. Lush forests–predominantly lowland dipterocarp forest, freshwater swamp forest and mangrove forest–covered most of Singapore in 1819. Singapore’s first post-independence Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, had a vision to ‘transform Singapore into a tropical garden city’. Roads form the vital green infrastructure of Singapore and hardy, fast-growing, large-crowned, tall, shady and low maintenance trees were planted in the early days. While parks are conceived as open spaces with horticultural planting for recreational purposes, nature reserves are core biodiversity areas that harbour most of Singapore’s indigenous flora and fauna. Singapore has also achieved some international attention as a ‘biophilic city’, a city with abundant nature and natural systems that are visible and accessible to urbanites.
