By Wendy Brawer | Director
We hope your year is started out well. To date in 2017, we have 5 new Green Mapmakers. Three are from Taiwan, including Lalawutu, Tunghai University and South Tainan Park, and one from the US state of Maryland, One Montgomery Green. We are happy to welcome back Beijing - Friends of Nature, starting again after completing terrific environmental education programs and beautifully designed projects such as the Shi Sha Hai Bicycling Green Map (linked below).
Number 6 is registering now, and we’re glad to say Singapore Environmental Council is returning, too. It’s been more than a decade since they published two editions (linked below). We asked the new project leader, Shaun Tan, a few questions and we are sharing his thoughtful answers with you:
Why now? Is SEC celebrating a special event or eco-milestone?
The previous map is almost 14 years old and much of Singapore’s landscape and boundaries have changed, including the discoveries of flora & fauna as well as the emergence of new nature areas for the public to explore.
Is environmental awareness growing there?
Yes, though it may be hard to measure. There are many indicators like resident committees organizing their own Earth Day celebrations, schools are incorporating environmental messaging in their curriculum and many ground-up initiatives and green events & conference are more frequent! Also, our training & education wing sees more requests for eco-related talks, workshops and nature walks!
Will you make a print map or interactive? or both?
Definitely an online copy will be priority and a print map will come if the budget allows! Once a basic copy is ready, the interactive components can come in if it proves to be well-received.
Is it for residents or tourists?
Resident (Locals) will be our priority, including school students. If the locals are interested, so will the tourists!
Will the focus be biodiversity as it was last time? We are still deciding but biodiversity will definitely be one of the features of the map.
Special thanks to Shaun and his colleagues at Singapore Environment Council. We very much admired their first maps, and look forward to the new one. We were lucky that one of the original SEC mapmakers, Lim Soon Chung, volunteered in our office in New York in 2006, creating an often-used photo archive as he scanned and organized for our first decade or so of images (including the scene below).
Our thanks to you, as well, Global Giving donors - your support makes so much possible!
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