Date
23/02/2019
Time
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Darwin Day 2019 will be special, given the 200th anniversary of Raffles’ landing, and the reflective mood across the nation with regards to its precolonial and natural heritage.
We will be hosting two speakers. The first speaker, Dr John van Wyhe, will be giving a talk on a lesser known side of Raffles, his contributions as a naturalist in the early 19th century. The second speaker, Dr Ho Hua Chew, veteran conservationist from the Nature Society (Singapore), will be sharing about the work done by the Society in protecting Singapore’s natural heritage.
Event details
Date: 23 Feb 2019
Time: 2.00pm to 5.00pm
Venue: Goh Loo Club 吾盧俱樂部, 72 Club Street, Singapore 069714
Fees: $8 for members, $10 for non-members
Buy tickets HERE
Lecture 1: Raffles as a Naturalist
By Dr John van Wyhe
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is well known as the founder of modern Singapore in 1819. His reputation has teetered between visionary pioneer and colonialist scoundrel, but there was another side to Raffles that is unknown to most people. He was also a scholar who had a deep interest in the cultures, history, languages and natural history of Southeast Asia. Raffles collected and sponsored the collection of hundreds of species of plants and animals. Many of these he had illustrated by local artists. Although much of his collection was destroyed by fire, he still enriched our knowledge of the biodiversity of Southeast Asia and finally become the founder of the London zoo- established to be a scientific collection for further study.
Lecture 2: Nature Conservation in 21st Century Singapore
By Dr Ho Hua Chew
The talk will be based on Dr Ho’s experience working for nature conservation in the Nature Society (Singapore), focusing on the rationale and objectives of the various tussles for unprotected natural habitats in Singapore in recent times. Dr Ho, who joined the nature society in 1971, has been doing conservation work full-time on behalf of NSS since 1999. Since the 1990s, he has been coordinating and writing detailed reports and proposals for the conservation of wildlife-supporting areas including Marina South, Kranji Marshes, Khatib Bongsu, South Simpang, Kent Ridge and Sentosa.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr John van Wyhe is a historian of science at the National University of Singapore who specialises on the history of biology and evolutionary theory. He leads regular expeditions of NUS students through Indonesia to study the state of nature conservation. He has published eleven books and is the Director of Darwin Online and Wallace Online. He lectures and broadcasts around the world.
Dr Ho Hua Chew is a member of the Executive Committee of the Nature Society (Singapore), working mainly within the Conservation Committee. As past Chairman of the Society’s Conservation Committee, he has about two decades of conservation work. Currently, he continues helping in co-ordinating the Society’s conservation activities & projects, such as feedbacks to government land-use & development plans, biodiversity surveys.
