Monday, March 10, 2008

Introduction

With the rising concern of climate changes, global warming in different parts of the world, wild life preservation has become a task that is even more difficult than ever. Singapore as a more developed country in the ASEAN region can play a role in starting the advocacy of wild life preservation.

Ironically, over the years, Singapore has become Asia’s number one illegal wildlife trading hub. Most wild life animals that are prohibited as pets in Singapore have been illegally imported, exported by traders. The trade in wild animals for pets results in the deaths of millions of animals every year during capture and transport—and inflicts extreme suffering on the animals involved. Often, more than half of the animals smuggled to supply exotic pets will die. More than 4,000 animals have been seized from dealers and private homes in the last five years in Singapore for reported cases only. In year 2005, it is also found that 1 in every 5 pet shops sell exotic wild life that is prohibited by law. The supply for the demand to Singapore pet owners shows that the law in Singapore protecting wild life clearly is not strict enough to deter these illegal wild life trades and also implies the ignorant consumerism amongst the public.

Issue for consideration

Hence, it is crucial that Singapore as part of an active member of the ASEAN region should take pro-active actions to contribute in this noble cause of preserving wild life by tackling illegal wild life trade. This can be done by:

• Enforcing the laws of the Singapore Constitution that protect illicit wild life trade
• Educating the public the consequences of supporting wild life trade
• Raising their awareness of the current situation of many endangered wild life that concerns Singapore

This proposal will concentrate on the aspect of education to public and in particular to the youths in Singapore.

Youths are mainly targeted as we believe that future of Singapore and the future of the wildlife preservation of Singapore lie in the hands of these young people. Moreover, the introduction of the various events into schools will help enrich students’ learning experience and branch out from their conventional curriculum, allowing young conservationists and environmentalists to contribute in efforts to their interests while providing them with the suitable platform for development.

Proposed Solution

(1) Creation of Nationwide Campaign

A campaign for wild life and the environment is proposed to be help nation wide in Singapore which can be an annual event supported and sponsored by the Singapore AVA. The campaign for wild life will work very closely with Singapore’s youths where it will come with the introduction of a “Wild Life Week” in Singapore. Schools, public, media, and various wild animal welfare NGOs like WWF, ACRES, NANAS can come together to show their support for the greater cause of help protecting wild life and to put a halt to illegal wild life trade in the country. The Wild Life Week will consist of:

• Film making competitions for schooling youths ranging from the age of 13-21 from secondary school, junior colleges, IPs school, polytechnics, ITEs, where the animation production will be targeted to raise the awareness of the public of the current situation of a particular wildlife issue that is close to heart. Film making competitions will be organized by the AVA in collaboration with MOE to help educate our youths about the mounting concern of many endangered wildlife. The winning team will have their production show cased on mobile TVs during the wildlife week (as part of the aim to raise public awareness) along with attractive prices sponsored by AVA.

• Poster design competition will be opened for students from different categories, like the primary school category and the secondary schools category. Students involved will be given the task of designing a poster that will suit a theme given by the AVA and to achieve the task of raising awareness of the public. The AVA can work with schools nation wide to promote this competition as part of the youths’ learning. The winning posters will be used as the featured posters of the wild life week to promote the particular theme. It may be used in wild life week road shows, distributed to schools and institutes and community centers as part of the advertisement for the wild life week.

• Road shows launched at Orchard road where we can garner more audience. This road show will be held by ACRES and its volunteers who may be public volunteers or students volunteering as part of their CIP, with the support of the AVA. This is to raise awareness of the public and road shows are good mediums to inform these issues to the general public. Also, these road shows will provide a good platform for these NGOs to raise funds for their organizations to help save wild life. Road shows will include booths set up by wild life preservation organizations like WWF, ACRES, and NANAS.

(2) Implementing Wild Life Education in Schools

• It is proposed also to include wild life education in Singapore’s National Education or Civics and Moral Education. The aims of this proposed solution are:

ü To educate generations to come to cherish and to protect our environment and nation’s treasure.

ü To educate and to raise awareness of the young generations in Singapore that wild animals are not pets.

ü To inform students of the current situation of some endangering wild life native to Singapore.

ü To inform students the mounting concern of illegal wildlife trade in Singapore and how each individual can work together to curb this situation.

This can be done by introducing a new chapter that contains current situation of illegal wild life trade in Singapore and the importance of wild life preservation into the Civics and Moral Education textbooks of primary and secondary school students. Also, talks by relevant NGOs can also be held in schools to raise the students’ awareness of wild life issues concurrent with their lessons.

• Providing wild life concerning options for compulsory services, such as Community Involvement Program (CIP), Service Learning Project (SLP).

ü School based compulsory projects should include wild life concerning projects as an option to also provide a platform for young conservationists or environmentalists to contribute their effort in their areas of interest.

ü AVA by cooperating with the MOE to introduce to schools CIPs options for students to volunteer in NGOs like ACRES or by helping in annual wild life week road shows or by helping in organizing the annual wild life campaign.

Expectations

By informing and educating the people, Singapore can curb wild life trades by cutting off the demand in the market and by raising their awareness of the importance of preserving these wild life especially some that are native to Singapore. The final aim of the whole proposal will be for the youths taking the advocacy of preserving wild life as part of their education odyssey and with that, projecting this voice of wild life preservation further to reach out to the general public.

Input

International Primate Protection League --http://www.ippl.org/12-22-06a.html

Animal Concerns Research and Education Society--http://www.acres.org.sg/news.html

Noah’s Ark Natural Animal Sanctuary--http://www.noahsarklodge.com/about_us.html

Singapore’s Ministry of Education--http://www.moe.gov.sg/press/2007/pr20070307a.htm

Vernus, Geetha, Kamalrulzaman, Sorna, Xiao Lu, Yitao, Huanjun, Rebecca, Zongwen, Jonathan, Rujin, Bao Ngan, Jnanee, Vionna, Tyas, Yidan, Cheryl, Sufandy, Minru, Cui Yu, Felix, Arjun, Rymax, Claudia, Derry, Mira, He Miao, Hong Xin!

*whew*




We're all from the awesome Animal Welfare SIG, part of the RCLF (Raffles Community Leaders Forum) 2008! Ahem.

ACRES Singapore
PETA
SPCA Singapore
WWF Singapore
NANAS Singapore


March 2008
April 2008