Greetings from Cameron Highlands

2 weeks into my research in Cameron Highlands on food production amidst rising fuel prices and concern about food shortage. This is really a very critical time when fertilizer cost are rising and food production costs are rising. At the same time, there are also lots of reports in the Malaysian media about illegal clearing of forests for farms and landslides resulting from leaking pipes that farmers use to source for water from the forests to their farms, kilometers away. The leaking pipes led to the weakening of slopes, resulting in landslides and the further polluting of drinking water sources for whole towns.




Meanwhile, I'm learning more than ever in the field on how our food is produced, farmers' concerns and the reality of our consumption. But how real is consumer sovereignty and how do we see our ecological footprint in actual spaces? Why is there such a dearth of information on the consumer side of the equation? I continue my search for answers here for the next 32 days.

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Volunteer Opportunities

Monkey says: "Dear Readers, This is a call for volunteers for my ongoing Masters research project. Cheers, November"



Volunteers are needed to help out in an ongoing academic research project on the impact of Singapore’s food consumption on the environment in Malaysia. This is done through understanding why and how farmers decide whether or not to adopt sustainable agricultural practices – whether through government legislation, consumer demand or other environmental factors.

There are two different components of the research that requires volunteers:

1) Consumer Survey in Singapore
Update @ 8 May: Still urgently in need of volunteers!
A maximum of 50 volunteers are needed to conduct surveys with consumers in Singapore at supermarkets and wet markets. Each volunteer needs to survey a minimum of 20 respondents at their own time and schedule. The survey can be conducted anytime between May to October 2008. Briefing and training will be conducted for all volunteers. Volunteers are most welcomed in assisting with the compiling of these data. Please indicate when signing up!

2) Field assistants in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
No more vacancies. Thank you for all your interests.
Farm observations and interviews with farmers in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia will be conducted from June to August 2008. Volunteers get the opportunity to be involved with a university-level research project and get first hand experience doing fieldwork as well as getting to know more about how farms operate. Get to know where your food comes from. Volunteers are required to conduct farm observations and conduct rapid environmental assessment of the farms. Training will be provided. Volunteers do not have to stay for the full duration of the fieldwork. Preferably, you are able to stay for a minimum of 1 to 2 weeks at any time. Schedules are negotiable. Accommodation will be provided.

If you are interested or would like more details, please feel free to email

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Looking for Interview Respondents

招募启示

您好：

现有一项由新加坡国立大学地理系主持开展的，关于移民社区、宗教与网络的学术研究，假如您是满足以下条件的人士，我们诚意邀请您接受我们的访问。要求如下：

（1）：佛教徒或基督教徒；
（2）：来自中国大陆、台湾或香港；
（3）：来新加坡时间不超过十年（至少一年以上）；

我们的访谈时间大约持续一个小时，您可以使用英语或中文。有需要的话，我们可以将访谈的主要内容提前寄送给您。为了感谢您对我们研究工作的支持，我们为每位参与访谈者提供了一份十元礼券。诚挚邀请您的参与，谢谢！

联系人：陈冰婷 小姐，Ms November Tan
Email：tan[at]nus[dot]edu[dot]sg
电话：8278 1851

新加坡国立大学地理学
National University of Singapore
Department of Geography

RECRUITMENT NOTICE
Interview Respondents Wanted

We are looking for interested participants for a research project funded by the National University of Singapore, Department of Geography. The research project hopes to understand the potential role of media (particularly the Internet) in building communication and community ties among Buddhists and Christians who have moved to Singapore from Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China or Taiwan.

If you are:
1) Christian or Buddhist
2) From Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China or Taiwan
3) Moved to Singapore in the last 1-10 years

We would like to invite you to participate in a face-to-face interview with us. The interview will take about one hour and will be conducted in English or Mandarin (according to your preference). If you require a list of questions that will be asked in the interview, we will be happy to send this to you. A small token of appreciation ($10 shopping voucher) will be provided in appreciation.

If interested, please contact Ms. November Tan tan[at]nus[dot]edu[dot]sg or call 82781851. An interview will be arranged to the time and venue of your convenience. The study will be ongoing till enough participants are recruited.

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EIA of Sentosa Integrated Resort

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Last year, as part of an assignment for an Environmental Management and Assessment class I was taking, my group and I did an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the integrated resort at Sentosa.


The future Integrated Resort at Sentosa

It is important to note that this is in many ways a hypothetical EIA. There were assumptions made and we did NOT do any baseline surveys or studies. Information were all taken from other sources and projected for this site.


Reclamation of Sentosa to expand the land area for the Integrated Resort

As our environmental impact assessment was done after development has already started, we had to work on several imaginary assumption as to the conditions to which we were given the "project". While we were not able to provide data as to the amount of rare or endangered species lost, do realize that the emphasis in an EIA is on analyzing the impacts and coming up with mitigations.


"Scorched earth" styled approach to development

Having done a rather detailed background understanding of the area which is detailed in the presentation slides, we realized that essentially natural coral reefs were being buried just to create marine park, aquarium and artificial coral reef! The marine areas were being filled in with sand and then dug up again to have a venice-like setting with waterways and promenades.


Reclaiming the coastline of northern Sentosa only to turn it later into a water-themed resort

On top of that, the areas that are nearest to the encroached forest inland is going to become a spa area. As such we propose a building design that minimizes the cutting of the trees. The scorched earth, raze to the ground then build up again type of developmental approach is definitely more destructive than necessary. Architectural and building sensitivity to the existing landscape can mitigate the impact of the development greatly. On top of that it would also increase the value and reputation of the property and business.


You can see the existing sediment screens (marked by the orange line bouy) used as a form of mitigation to the impact of the reclamation but how effective is it compared to not reclaiming at all?

Additionally, EIA are supposed to have a very comprehensive public participation component as well. The actual EIA done of the development both had a very skewered term of reference (the question or issue of concerned that is examined by the EIA) as well as a poor excuse of public engagement. In fact, we had to lock away our phones, cameras and computers when we went to view it. Pen and paper only!

Either way, we can only hope that as the development is still in varying stages of construction, there is still opportunity for changes to be made to the design, such as incorporating more ecologically friendly features.

More photos of the reclamation and development works can be seen here.

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Is there air pollution in Singapore?

This is a presentation I did for my Environmental Management and Assessment class which I subsequently got encouragingly good grades. It is in line with the air pollution series of posts I wrote on Metroblogging Singapore after witnessing disturbing emissions from oil refineries and power plants in the west of Singapore.

Now with Google Presentations, you can view my presentations with ease.

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