ExxonMobil Chemical Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. at the 2008 NUS Raffles Museum Guidebook Launch

Welcome Remarks by
Mr Jeffery W Davis, Asia Pacific Manufacturing Director
ExxonMobil Chemical Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. at the
2008 NUS Raffles Museum Guidebook Launch
Monday, 24 November 2008


Good Afternoon,

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs;
Prof Leo Tan, Director Special Projects, National University of Singapore;
Professor Andrew Wee, Dean of Science, National University of Singapore;
Professor Peter Ng, Director, Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research;
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen;

I am very pleased to be with you today, to celebrate the launch of the second in a series of natural guidebooks, “Private Lives: An Exposé of Singapore’s Mangrove”.

Many of us urban residents oftentimes mistake our mangrove swamps as muddy, mosquito-ridden wasteland, filled with wild and dangerous inhabitants and avoid them, without caring to learn more about them.  Truth be told, this much-maligned eco system actually holds a wealth of plants and animals that are extremely important to us.  They are a centre for biodiversity as rich as any rainforest, despite their relatively small size.

In the land-scarce Singapore, we are fortunate that we are still able to enjoy about 500 hectares of mangrove areas at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, the mangrove park in Pasir Ris and along the southern islands.  These are, in effect, natural classrooms that provide students with opportunities to learn more about the flora and fauna that reside in these preserves, and be able to come into close proximity with the endangered fireflies, otters and crocodiles that reside in these rich and treasured habitats.

Though small, these mangrove swamps have yielded a large number of discoveries in the last decade.  In fact, only recently we have registered two new mangrove species and  rediscovered another species  that has not been seen for more than 50 years.

For the typical food-loving Singaporean, mangroves should have a special place in our hearts.  They are a major source of many of our most loved seafood, from fish to prawns to crabs and shellfish. Can you imagine an ice kachang without the attap chee?  Well, a look in swamplands will reveal to us that the attap chee originates from there.  The Nipah Palm, from which we get our attap chee, is the only true mangrove palm in Singapore.

In order to continue our enjoyment of these mangrove swamps, we need to be mindful of our responsibility to protect our fragile ecosystems.  Each year, hundreds of volunteers, mostly students, take to our coasts and remove as much rubbish as they can. Between 2001 and 2004, some 10 tonnes of rubbish were collected from Kranji mangroves alone!  The rubbish ranges from water barrels to pieces of furniture.  As the old Native American proverb goes, "We didn’t inherit the Earth from our parents.  We are borrowing it from our children."  We need to continue to be responsible for our own environment, to pick up after ourselves and to teach others to do the same.

ExxonMobil is honoured to be associated with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research for this series of guidebooks and guide sheets on the biodiversity in Singapore.  This collaboration aims to increase the awareness that Singapore has an impressive collection of extensive and diverse habitats.  The only way we can continue to enjoy this ecosystem is to educate and encourage everyone to care for these habitats.

This project currently comprises seven guide sheets and two guidebooks, with more to come.  The guide sheets feature insects and birds, and habitats such as mangrove swamps and coastal areas.  The vibrant and colourful guide sheets are handy references that can be taken along for walks in our nature reserves.  In each guide sheet, you will also find tips on how to be a responsible visitor and how we each can play a part to protect our fragile ecosystem.  These guide sheets have been a big hit with school children since the soft launch of the first Bukit Timah Nature Reserve guide sheet in November 2006.  As an additional resource, the guidebooks contain a wealth of references that help to showcase even more the rich biodiversity in Singapore.

At ExxonMobil, we believe that our students are our most promising natural resource and the key to a bright and promising future for all of us.  One of the other projects that we sponsor with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity is the Nature Explorers’ Programme.  This programme aims to cultivate the curiosity of science and the natural world among young and not-so-young students and promote the development of scientific and creative thinking.

I would like to conclude my remarks by thanking Ms. Wang Luan Keng and Dr. Peter Ng for their tireless effort and partnership with ExxonMobil, to educate our future generations, to build awareness of our natural heritage and to help us realise that we all have a part to play to conserve every corner of our planet.

Thank you.