News

Information for applications for Database Manager position:

Advertised: 6 Novemeber 2020

Closing Date for applications to reach the NSS Office: Sunday 6 December 2020

The Nature Society (Singapore) or NSS, is a non-government, non-profit organization, registered as a Society and an Institution of a Public Character (Unique Entity Number S61SS0142H). It is dedicated to the appreciation, conservation, study and enjoyment of the natural heritage in Singapore, Malaysia and the surrounding region. Inaugurated in 1954 as the Singapore branch of the Malayan Nature Society, it became the Nature Society (Singapore) in 1991.

The Society is run by its active members. These comprise the Executive Committee, the Council, the Chairpersons and Committees of the various Special Interest Groups and functional Committees and all those who lead, organize or support specific activities. The Society depends financially on subscriptions and donations from its members as well as donations from companies, institutions, foundations and private individuals.

Regular activities for members include guided local nature walks, slide talks and overseas eco-trips. These can be of either general nature interest or of specialist interest such as birds, other vertebrates, butterflies, plants or habitats, such as intertidal or marine zones. A programme of regular island-wide censuses of birds as well as a bird race are annual events. The Society also has monthly Fun with Nature programmes for youngsters aged 5 – 9 years, and a related sponsored programme for schools, the Every Singaporean A Naturalist programme. In addition, the society is at any time involved in a number of projects. These can be book publishing projects, conservation and habitat restoration projects or advocacy to provide feedback to government-linked bodies regarding the effects of proposed developments in or adjacent to nature reserves and nature areas. For such projects specific surveys of birds, mammals, butterflies and other vertebrates and invertebrates are conducted, sometimes independently and sometimes in collaboration with National Parks Board.

In the past the Society successfully persuaded the government to set aside and manage Sungei Buloh as a wetlands nature park, a park which was so successful that it was later enlarged and gazetted as a nature reserve. The Society was also able to stave off, through its Environmental Impact Assessment report, proposals to develop part of the Peirce Forests, in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, into a golf course. It has relocated corals from several areas in advance of reclamation projects, and it joined with other nature groups to provide information to the government on the rich biodiversity of Chek Jawa, at Pulau Ubin, which led to the government deferring proposed land reclamation. Since the publication in 1990 of the then ground-breaking Master Plan for the Conservation of Nature in Singapore, the Society has continued to produce numerous conservation-oriented and biodiversity-based reports, checklists and guides; an updated edition of this Master Plan is planned for 2020. Since 2013, has been actively involved in the Cross Island Line MRT routing issue, and in 2019 a new book about the Green Rail Corridor was launched; please see our website on this and other recent projects.

NSS has produced a number of important publications by Special Interest Groups of the Society; for 2020 an updated edition of our best-seller Wild Animals of Singapore (2008, reprinted 2012) by the Vertebrate Study Group is scheduled. The Marine Conservation Group has an active rescue and research programme in relation to Horseshoe Crabs at Kranji, which now includes an island-wide annual survey and a tracking project. In November 2008, the Society adopted the Kranji Reservoir within the framework of the PUB ABC Waters scheme. Under this Adoption it has focused on restoration of the marshland and ponds and on nature appreciation activities for the general public in the area close to Neo Tiew Lane 2. The Bird Group of the Society has adopted the Lorong Halus Wetlands. The Conservation Committee has also recently been active in the conservation of freshwater ponds at Lorong Halus and green areas of the Tengah development.

Secretariat

The Society operates from an Office at The Sunflower at 510 Geylang Road, i.e. the corner of Lorong 28, Geylang, and at present employs three-full time staff. Some specific tasks such as the production of the quarterly Nature Watch magazine are contracted to individual members.