Category: News Page 8 of 12

Hard Talk with Tiger Biologist, Dr Kae Kawanishi on Covid-19 Lessons

Dr Kae Kawanishi delivering keynote speech at ‘Save the Malayan Tiger’ fundraising dinner organised by Cicada Tree Eco-Place on 27 Sep 2014 at Hortpark, Singapore. (Learn more about our campaign and fundraiser to Save the Malayan Tiger)

Interview by Cicada Tree Eco-Place

We hear from Dr Kae Kawanishi (Tiger Biologist, General Manager and Head of Conservation, MYCAT) on takeaway lessons from the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic crisis and human impact on wild nature:

Q: What is your take on life in the time of COVID-19?

Dr Kae: “We live in an extraordinary time in human history where major events on a global scale seem to not only accelerate in frequency but also grow in scale and impacts. COVID-19 is one of them but there will be other zoonotic diseases as interfaces/interactions between humans and wild spaces/wildlife increase. This global pandemic is a once or twice in a lifetime stress-test for people, companies, and nations.”

Q: What do you think brought this about, and how do you think we will fare in this crisis?

Dr Kae: “In my opinion, much of human suffering in general is brought about by the inequality of wealth, inefficient distribution of resources, and weak governance. This in turn, usually has huge implications on wild nature. This weakness in our society came to light in this stress-test. I don’t think that COVID-19 has changed the fundamental flaws in the current capitalism or consumerism, but the pandemic has shaken everyone and I am optimistic about the resilience of nature and humans’ ability to learn to be better or cope with the stress.”

Q: What do you think are some of the lessons we could learn from Covid-19?

“I hope one of the takeaway lessons is about humility. Humans are not that special, and our lives too are at the mercy of forces beyond our control. Growing up in Japan, I was constantly reminded of our relative insignificance by the sometimes violent nature of our planet. Over the millennia, the forces of nature, be they earthquakes, landslides or tsunamis, and beautiful and bountiful blessings of the seas and mountains have shaped Japanese’ psyche.”

Q: How do you think this unprecedented event will impact our future survival and the survival of wildlife including the Malayan Tiger?

Dr Kae: “The extreme weather patterns, severity and frequencies of mega natural disasters, and the loss of biodiversity are all inter-connected. In its geological history, the earth has seen much more violent episodes of these beyond our imagination. Mass-extinction happened five times in the past and we are in the midst of the 6th mass-extinction. The 6th is unique in our perspective because we are the cause, but to the earth, every one of them is a unique event. The tiger may go soon because it competes with humans for the need for large forests. But COVID-19 reminds us that we are not that special. The human may be one of 1 million species expected to be gone if we don’t learn to promote co-existence.

The iconic Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) is a sub-species unique only to the Malay Peninsula and used to roam the rainforests of Singapore. It is now locally extinct. In Peninsular Malaysia, more than 300 tigers were tragically lost in the last decade. There is no crisis greater than tiger extinction in Malaysia’s nature conservation history.
If urgent action is not taken to save this critically endangered species, the last 200 wild Malayan Tigers will be gone forever. Photo: MYCAT

Q:  What do you think is needed to save nature and thereby save ourselves?

Dr Kae: “The frequencies and scale of the mega global events getting closer and bigger indicate that there isn’t much time left to start making significant changes. I do know that change is happening, but not fast and big enough because world leaders are often sidetracked with other agendas that usually promote competition instead.”

Q: What lesson can you share about human dependence on nature and our treatment of nature?

Dr Kae: “The second important lesson may be about our essential needs. Knowing what it is that we can live without help simplifies our lives. The Japanese phrase taruoshiru means ‘to know one has enough’ or ‘to be content with what one has’. I learned about life’s essentials during my field research. In a very practical sense, this was because I could only carry 15kg on my back. That’s all I had in the forest for weeks. But beyond the daily maintenance needs, the fieldwork in the wilderness distilled my life needs to a very few essentials, and the wild nature was one of them. I’ve had countless moments of communion with her and still do. She does not teach anything. She just is.”


The Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) is a sub-species unique only to the Malay Peninsula and used to roam the rainforests of Singapore. Tragically, Malayan Tigers have been hunted to the verge of extinction and now number less than 200 in the jungles of Peninsular Malaysia.

Save the Malayan Tiger – CAT Walks 2020

Due to Covid-19, all CAT Walks are currently on hold till further notice. To find out more about CAT Walks and to support MYCAT, please visit the this link: https://www.citizenactionfortigers.my/

Thank you, take care and stay safe,
Cicada Tree Eco-Place

World Bee Day 2020 – Where will we all be without the busy bees?

By bringing pollen from flower to flower, bees directly contribute to the production of fruits, nuts and seeds. The decline of bees and other pollinators impact our well-being and the well-being of the environment. To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day. Photo by Teresa Teo Guttensohn at Pangsua Woodlands along The Rail Corridor, May 2020.

by Teresa Teo Guttensohn

Today, 20 May is World Bee Day. Small, hardworking and often forgotten in urbanised Singapore, we forget that our well-being depends upon the existence of bees.

The humble bee and other pollinators like butterflies, birds and nectar bats are under threat from human activities and are on an alarming decline worldwide.

The decline of bees affects us all and it is critical to halt the loss of pollinators and biodiversity. To do so, we must protect the last of our wilderness areas and ecosystems.

“Pollination is fundamental for the survival of our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity.”

United Nations

How you can help to protect our wild bees:

  1. Flowers for bees – plant different native plants which flower at different times of the year.
  2. Go natural – avoid chemical pesticides, fungicides or herbicides in your gardens. Use environmentally friendlier methods and sprays. Protect wild bee habitats, colonies and hives where possible.
  3. Protect and conserve forests and other natural ecosystems which are crucial habitats and food sources of bees.
  4. Raise and share awareness on the importance of bees.

World Endangered Species Day – Kids Poster Design Contest

Submission is now closed. The deadline was extended to 10 July. Please note that only designs featuring native, endangered wildlife will be eligible.


To commemorate World Endangered Species Day, Cicada Tree Eco-Place is pleased to announce a poster design contest open to all children in Singapore between the ages of 6-8 and 9-11. Simply draw or design a poster featuring our endangered native wildlife with the slogan “Protect Our Last Wilderness” for a chance to win a prize!

Dr Jane Goodall on COVID-19 and destruction of the natural world: “We brought this on ourselves.”

https://www.facebook.com/camanpour/posts/10163601678450370?__tn__=K-R

Christiane Amanpour:
Did it have a silver lining in terms of how we figure out our place – we humans in the natural world – what we’ve done to potentially disrupt the natural world? Where do you think this could lead?

Jane Goodall:
Well, the thing is that we’ve brought this on ourselves. A pandemic like this has been predicted, we’ve had epidemics galore, and it’s because we’ve disrespected the natural world and the animals who live there. And we cut down forests, animals are pushed closer together, some of them are pushed to crop-raid and things from the nearby villagers. This gives an opportunity for the viruses and bacteria to spill over from the animal host to human.

And then, in addition to that, we kill them, we eat them, we traffic them, we sell them in wildlife meat markets across Asia – which, by the way, most wet markets don’t sell live wild animals at all; they’re more like farmer’s markets – but anyway, these wildlife meat markets across Asia and the bush meat markets in Africa create ideal environments for these viruses and bacteria to hop over, to cross the species barrier and bind with whatever they bind with in the human to create a new disease like COVID-19.

And we should remember it’s not only the cruelty to the animals who are sold in tiny cages, often killed on the spot, vendors and customers contaminated with blood, urine, faeces, and so on, but then we’ve got our factory farms, that we’re breeding billions of animals in terrible, horrible, crowded, unsanitary conditions. And academics have started from factory farms as well as from these wildlife markets, so we have brought this on ourselves and people have known about it and been telling us about it, but we prefer to go on with business as usual to make money and attain power in the short term and not worry about future generations or the health of the planet.

(Transcription by Tia Guttensohn)

Page 8 of 12

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén