Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore

340 Pages·2014·21.209 MB·English

by  Timothy P. Barnard (editor)

Nature Contained
Environmental Histories of Singapore
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Nature Contained
Environmental Histories of Singapore
Edited by
Timothy P. Barnard
NUS PRESS
SINGAPORE
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© 2014 Timothy P. Barnard
Published by:
NUS Press
National University of Singapore
AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link
Singapore 117569
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.nus.edu.sg/nuspress
ISBN 978-9971-69-790-7 (Paper)

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or
any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without
written permission from the Publisher.
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Nature contained : environmental histories of Singapore / edited by Timothy P.
Barnard. – Singapore : NUS Press, 2014.
pages cm
ISBN : 978-9971-69-790-7 (paperback)
1. Human ecology – History – Singapore. 2. Singapore – History –
Environmental aspects. I. Barnard, Timothy P., 1963-
GF13
304.2095957 -- dc23 OCN859513265
Front cover: A supertree, and trees, at Gardens by the Bay, Singapore (Courtesy of
Christopher Yong).
Back cover: Poster for the special stamp collection “Wayside Trees of Singapore”, 1976
(Courtesy of the Postal Services Department, Singapore, and the National Archives
of Singapore).
Typeset by: Forum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Printed by: Mainland Press Pte Ltd
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements x

An Introduction, by Timothy P. Barnard 1
Source 1 John Crawfurd’s Singapore: An Excerpt from 9
A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and
Adjacent Countries (1856)
Chapter 1 Singapore’s Changing Landscape since c. 1800 17
Tony O’Dempsey
Source 2 The Tiger Club: Excerpts from Accounts of Tigers in 49
19th-Century Singapore
Chapter 2 Tigers of Colonial Singapore 55
Timothy P. Barnard and Mark Emmanuel
Source 3 Wallace’s Singapore: An Excerpt from 81
The Malay Archipelago (1869)
Chapter 3 Wallace in Singapore 85
John van Wyhe
Source 4 Visiting the Botanical Gardens: Excerpts from 110
Fox’s Guide to the Botanic Gardens (1889)
Chapter 4 The Environmental Relevance of the Singapore 115
Botanic Gardens
Nigel P. Taylor
Source 5 Regulating the Wildlife Trade: Excerpts from 138
Report of the Wild Animals and Wild Birds
Committee, Singapore, 1933
Chapter 5 The Beastly Business of Regulating the 145
Wildlife Trade in Colonial Singapore
Fiona L.P. Tan
v
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vi Contents
Source 6 A Whale’s Tale: Excerpts from The Annual Reports 179
of the Raffles Museum and Library, Newspaper
Accounts and Visitors’ Memories
Chapter 6 The Raffles Museum and the Fate of Natural 184
History in Singapore
Timothy P. Barnard
Source 7 Agricultural Production in Singapore: Excerpts from 212
Annual Reports of the Primary Production
Department, Ministry of National Development
from the 1970s and 1980s
Chapter 7 Agriculture and the End of Farming in Singapore 216
Cynthia Chou
Source 8 “Wildlife and Singapore”: An Assessment from 241
the 1980s
Chapter 8 The Nature Society, Endangered Species, and 245
Conservation in Singapore
Goh Hong Yi
Source 9 “And That Was Good”: A Brief History of the 276
Greening of Singapore
Chapter 9 A City in a Garden 281
Timothy P. Barnard and Corinne Heng
Bibliography 307
Contributors 321
Index 323
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List of Illustrations
FIGURES
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Primeval vegetation of Singapore. 19
Figure 1.2 Geographic distribution of tiger incidents between 27
1840 and 1930 (based on newspaper accounts).
Figure 1.3 Tiger incidents per decade between 1835 and 1930 27
(based on newspaper accounts).
PLATES
Chapter 2
Plate 2.1 Unterborchene Strassenmessung auf Singapore 56
(Road Surveying Interrupted in Singapore),
by Heinrich Leutemann (c. 1885).
Chapter 3
Plate 3.1 An image, taken from plate 8 of “Longicornes 94
Malayana,” featuring illustrations of insects Wallace
collected in Singapore. Specifically, figures 2, 6 and 7
are from Singapore. The largest, #6, is a
Samia albidorsalis.
Plate 3.2 Photograph of Geach and Wallace. The originals 105
survive in the Natural History Museum Wallace
collection. A version of the Wallace photograph,
with Geach removed, was later published in
Marchant 1916.
Plate 3.3 “My faithful boy—Ali.” From Wallace, My Life, 106
vol. 1, p. 383.
Chapter 6
Plate 6.1 A fraction of the bird collection of the Raffles 191
Museum of Biodiversity Research.
vii
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viii List of Illustrations
Plate 6.2 A mounted tiger on display. 194
Plate 6.3 “White coffins” used to store specimens on the 206
cramped campus of the University of Singapore
during the 1970s.
Plate 6.4 Squirrel specimens from the Zoological Reference 207
Collection after transfer to Nanyang University
in 1980.
Plate 6.5 Storage cabinets for the Zoological Reference 208
Collection in the 1980s.
Chapter 9
Plate 9.1 Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew launching the 288
Tree Planting Campaign in June 1963.
Plate 9.2 Discussions and meetings beginning in the 294
1960s, often under the leadership of Prime
Minister Lee Kuan Yew, focused on the
various greening campaigns that would
create a Garden City. This meeting, from
1963, was among the first.
Plate 9.3 Support for greening programs could be 299
found throughout all government agencies,
including the Post Office, which issued a
special stamp collection, “Wayside Trees of
Singapore,” in 1976.
Plate 9.4 Gardens by the Bay, Singapore. 304
TABLES
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Estimates of amount of forest cover needed for 24
gambier and pepper production.
Table 1.2 Return B of McNair’s 1879 Report. 30
Table 1.3 Cantley’s recommendations for forest lands in the 33
Straits Settlements (1883).
Table 1.4 Summary of forest reserves in 1889, forest cover, 34
and classification.
Table 1.5 Summary of areas for principle habitats illustrating 47
losses to date.
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List of Illustrations ix
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Comparison of Singapore’s imports and 151
exports of birds and other animals with
other entities in British Malaya (1933).
Table 5.2 Export of wild animals and their products from 156
the Netherlands Indies to Singapore, 1918–25.
Table 5.3 List of known animal and bird traders in the 1930s. 164
Chapter 7
Table 7.1 Singapore food production in 1982. 233
Chapter 8
Table 8.1 MNS membership by year. 250
Table 8.2 CITES Appendices. 261
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