Prof. Leo Tan visited to our Natural Heritage SSS1207 lecture yesterday as a guest speaker. I was excited, as I often come across his name in books, in papers and just being mentioned by people around. And he gave such a moving and inspirational speech about conservation in Singapore that I told my friends that we must go down and talk to him after the lecture. We must quickly think up of questions to ask him.
Conservation comes alive!
What moved me was how he made conservation come to life. Prof. Tan admitted himself that as a student he often got bored of the textbooks and many didn't teach in an engaging manner, he would much rather get out of the classroom and inspect nature. It is the same case for me, I honestly could not understand why so many of our Biology lecturers are conservationist. Are the two so tightly intertwined and correlated? I must admit, I expressed shocked when I first asked Prof. Hugh Tan, my supervisor what projects does he do. However, Prof. Leo Tan, for the first time in my life, helped me to see the heart of a conservationist.
Imagine your laboratory metamorphosing into a airport runway
He talked about the beneficial roles of biodiversity and what it means to Singapore in the past, present and future. Some moving examples he gave was how he and Prof. Peter Ng and him were working on their research project back in the late 1970s on Changi Beach, but in 1981, halfway through their 7-year project, their project disappeared as the government reclaimed that piece of land for the Changi terminal 2 runway. This one really clicked with my heart, and at once, I felt the anguish of losing something one had invested in and one loved. To me, if that had happened to me, it would make me even more eager to share with others the biodiversity in Singapore to try to think of creative solutions to conserve as much as possible.
What is the value of a tree?
My heart was also stirred when Prof. Leo Tan talked about scrupulous contractors who indiscriminately poisoned, ringed the bark of (murder by removal of phloem) and chop down trees in the past due to the low fine of S$10 000, a small sum compared to what they can possibly earn by developing the land on which the tree sits on. He cited an example of how a contractor was fined S$84 000 instead of the S$10 000 for chopping down the Changi tree as the tree was worth $76 000. That's why not we give each heritage in Singapore a value, to protect our trees.
There were many other interesting examples he gave such as the success story of Pulau Semakau - the paradise rubbish island, MM Lee's role in supporting the Gardens at the Bay project at Marina, the indirect economic benefit to biodiversity in Singapore like for securing FTAs and FDIs. But those for another time perhaps.
It is the first time for me to, after a lecture, go down to the lecturer and tell him I was so inspired by him. His speech had a therapeutic effect with removed my inhibition. I thank him for taking time to visit us and to share his passion with us.
To round it up, the most pressing question I had in me was. What is your main motivation for conservation? And it turns out to be for the conservation of self, so that we can live in a healthy environment. :) It is so simple and meaningful. It's not like those lofty ideals nor like a moralistic stance, but one that comes from the heart. Because I am part of this earth and if the earth is sick, I would be sick too.
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