FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Birds, blooms and bees: A day out with 'Mr Nature'

Birds, blooms and bees: A day out with 'Mr Nature'

President of Singapore's Nature Society, Shawn Lum prefers quietly encouraging people to appreciate nature to holding vociferous protests

Dr Shawn Lum came to Southeast Asia to trace the roots of a tree. He ended up staying in Singapore for 25 years, spreading his own roots and saving forests here
Five years ago, he became president of the island’s oldest, largest and most vocal environmental non-profit organisation, the Nature Society (Singapore). Since then, the American botanist and National Institute of Education (NIE) lecturer, a long-time Singapore permanent resident, has shunned vociferous protests. Instead, he has been quietly nudging more people outdoors to appreciate nature.
The Nature Society used to make waves for its watchdog advocacy work. These included successfully staving off plans to develop part of Peirce Reservoir forest into a golf course in 1992, persuading the government to set aside Sungei Buloh as a mangrove and bird sanctuary in 1993, and agitating for the preservation of Chek Jawa, a unique marine habitat on Pulau Ubin in 2001.
But Lum has since returned the organisation to its original role as a hobby – rather than lobby – group, propagating the pleasures of looking at birds, plants and butterflies. He has increased the frequency of guided nature walks, conducted more conservation surveys than ever before and linked up with schools, statutory boards and companies to promote nature appreciation.
The 50-year-old is like a placid lake in the tempestuous world of global environmental activism, often led by strident lobbyists. But still waters run deep. His goals, it emerges, are no less lofty. And he is steadily advancing towards them with gentlemanly charm in his signature Hawaiian shirts.
It’s just his approach that is different. He works single-mindedly, churning out exhaustive studies and cultivating international links. He works collaboratively with others, be they shrill-voiced members, other non-profit organisations with competing agendas, or policymakers in a hurry.
Under his charge, the society, which now has some 1,500 members, up from its nadir of 1,200 when he took over in 2008 and down from its peak of 2,000 in the late 1980s, is also looking outwards.
One of his early projects was the Horseshoe Crab Rescue and Research Programme. It started six years ago when society members found the crabs trapped in abandoned fishing nets at the Mandai mangrove area.
Rescue efforts soon grew into full-scale research when they found out that the supply of horseshoe crabs in North America was fast being depleted by pharmaceutical companies for use in laboratory work.
Going forward, he wants to carry out more “citizen science” by getting the public to participate in similar research. He is working with Queensway Secondary School to design a data sheet which students can fill up on plants and wildlife spied along the ABC Waters at Sungei Ulu Pandan.
He is also looking into a phone app that will allow people to fill in observations on their daily bus or MRT commutes through verdant nature areas.
“When you’re riding on a double-decker bus, you can see flowers, birds and butterflies up in the trees every time the bus comes to a stop. First of all, we will have this wonderful database on what’s out there, with many more pairs of eyes out there looking. It will also give people a greater stake in their own environment and hopefully hasten the growth of nature-watching as a general, not just specialist, hobby,” he says.
He also plans to push for the implementation of nature-friendly building codes. “We have green certifications here. To be environmentally friendly is defined as not wasting water or energy, but one criterion should also be being wildlife friendly,” he says.
A doctorate student in botany from the University of California, Berkeley, Lum was hired by the NIE in 1993 as its first resident botanist. He immediately devoted himself to teaching plant diversity and ecology to future science teachers and passing on his boundless love of nature, which he hopes will rub off on their students.
Tan Beng Chiak, 51, a biology teacher and long-time Nature Society member, says: “He is always top of the list whenever a school wants to invite a biologist to speak. He is eloquent, charismatic and insightful, and brings all sorts of resources, like fresh fish and fruits, to a classroom to excite the students”.
Lum’s paid work, volunteer work and hobbies all converge into one. He has zero work-life balance. “I don’t know where the one ends and the other begins really. I’m lucky or it’s a curse, but the volunteer work feeds back into my professional work. They help me both as a biologist and a teacher as well as a nature enthusiast and conservationist.”
Weekends find him either at society outings, or hiking at MacRitchie Trails or Upper Seletar Reservoir Park. He is often at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, where he began a long-term forest dynamics study 20 years ago and has since identified and tagged 30,000 trees. He also likes to grow fruit trees at the Woodleigh Park Estate semi-detached house he shares with his Singaporean wife of five years, Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer Evelyn Ng.
Once again, it’s for “work-related” reasons. “I can identify the grown tree in the forest. But when I see the little plants on the forest floor, I may not know what they are,” he says.
Even his belief system is based on Hawaiian and Japanese animist traditions, where everything is deemed to have a spiritual quality and be interconnected. 
“In modern life, we have made a lot of progress but we have lost so much too, in terms of our spiritual connection with the environment.
“I’m not saying we should become animists,” he hastens to add. “But if we can regain our reverence for animals and plants, it will make for a more meaningful and enjoyable life. Any culture that holds dear other living things and nature also respects culture, heritage and a diversity of views.”
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