Article ID: CBB513551518

Singapore's Lost Coast: Land Reclamation, National Development and the Erasure of Human and Ecological Communities, 1822-Present (2021)

unapi

Beginning during the colonial period, and greatly accelerating following independence in 1965, Singapore has used land reclamation to increase its national domain by nearly 25 per cent. The construction of new land was a key component of the nation's celebrated rise from 'third world' to 'first world' in the postcolonial period. But the economic benefits of remaking Singapore's coastline came at significant ecological and social costs. Nearly all of the original shore, and its attendant mangrove forests and natural beaches, were lost. So too were two-thirds of Singapore's coral reefs. While carrying out this reclamation, the state also erased a number of sites at which people made a living from the sea, including indigenous communities on the outer islands, age-old fishing villages, kelongs (large, traditional offshore fishing platforms) and prawn farms.The history of land construction in Singapore offers a number of important insights concerning the relationship between humans and our environments. First, it reveals how the tensions between an ideal situation (a city or state's relationship to other places) and a less than optimum site (its physical environment), when combined with a forceful, proactive government, can bring about immense environmental transformations. Related to that, this case sheds light on the ways in which governments - especially in developing nations - can use transformation of terrestrial and marine environments, in the name of progress, as a means of expanding and legitimating their authority. This history also reveals a perhaps unforeseen consequence of bulldozing and burying sites at which humans derived their livelihood from living oceanic resources: the loss of a cultural connection to the sea, based on knowing nature through work. Finally, this history raises the question of how environmental advocates can pursue conservation in a setting like Singapore's shores, which we can no longer consider pristine or natural. That is to say, the ongoing efforts of environmentalists to protect flora and fauna in Singapore's waters speak to the necessity of, and challenges presented by, preserving hybrid (neither entirely natural nor entirely artificial) marine environments.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB513551518/

Similar Citations

Book Barnard, Timothy P.; (2014)
Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore (/isis/citation/CBB001422376/)

Book Piero Pedrocco; (2022)
Il governo delle acque nel nord est italiano (/isis/citation/CBB225692671/)

Article Crozier, Ivan; (2012)
Making Up Koro: Multiplicity, Psychiatry, Culture, and Penis-Shrinking Anxieties (/isis/citation/CBB001250104/)

Book Kah Seng Loh; Li Yang Hsu; (2019)
Tuberculosis – The Singapore Experience, 1867–2018: Disease, Society and the State (/isis/citation/CBB456060024/)

Book Marc Schlossman; (2022)
Extinction: Our Fragile Relationship with Life on Earth (/isis/citation/CBB308676844/)

Book Marco Armiero; Roberta Biasillo; Wilko Graf von Hardenberg; (2022)
Mussolini's Nature: An Environmental History of Italian Fascism (/isis/citation/CBB022333357/)

Chapter Michael Dillon; Sarah Dillon; (2020)
Artificial Intelligence and the Sovereign-Governance Game (/isis/citation/CBB714156693/)

Book Lisa T. Sarasohn; (2021)
Getting Under Our Skin: The Cultural and Social History of Vermin (/isis/citation/CBB825215949/)

Book Matthew Kelly; (2015)
Quartz and feldspar: Dartmoor - a British landscape in modern times (/isis/citation/CBB703998514/)

Book Peter S. Alagona; (2022)
The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities (/isis/citation/CBB499746657/)

Book Tim Lewens; (2015)
Cultural Evolution: Conceptual Challenges (/isis/citation/CBB315429681/)

Book Tan, Kevin Y. L.; (2015)
Of Whales and Dinosaurs: The Story of Singapore's Natural History Museum (/isis/citation/CBB001510004/)

Article Sarah M. Hamylton; Pat Hutchings; Carrie Sims; Selina Ward; (2022)
The Australian Coral Reef Society: The last 40 years of a century working with Australia’s coral reefs (/isis/citation/CBB348164448/)

Book White, P.J.; Garrott, Robert A.; Plumb, Glenn E.; (2013)
Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition (/isis/citation/CBB001421443/)

Book Jeff Karnicky; (2016)
Scarlet Experiment: Birds and Humans in America (/isis/citation/CBB488937827/)

Authors & Contributors
Carrie Sims
Alvise Fiume
Sarah M. Hamylton
Vittorio Bevivino
Marc Schlossman
Michael Dillon
Concepts
Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships
Environmental history
Human-animal relationships
Conservation and restoration
Land reclamation
Animals
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
18th century
Early modern
20th century, early
Places
Singapore
Italy
United States
Pontine Marshes
Great Barrier Reef
South Carolina (U.S.)
Institutions
Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS)
Field Museum of Natural History
Yellowstone National Park
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment