Name of location: The Maldives

The Maldives lies Southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 700 kilometers from the mainland. It is a small island nation in South Asia in the Arabian sea of the Indian ocean. It’s made up of a chain of 26 atolls spanning around 298 square kilometers. It has a population of 540,544 and 142,909 for its capital city, Malè, in 2017.

Tourism is one of the most important industry in the Maldives, accounting for 30% of the Maldives total GDP and 90% of its tax revenues. Every year, 1.5 million tourists go to Maldives and Maldives earns a total amount of $2 millions USD from tourism. Most tourists go to Maldives for the water sports there such as snorkelling, scuba diving, sailing and kayaking. At the same time, Maldives also offers a biodiverse environment for visitors to explore.

There are many human attractions and physical attractions in Maldives. Human attractions include:

• Dive clubs
• Spa’s
• Commercial Districts providing entertainment/shopping
• Fish Market (In Malè)
• National Museum (In Malè), displays antiques from Maldives Buddhist era

Physical attractions in Maldives are mainly its beaches and wildlife. On its beaches, there are:

• Peaceful with sounds of the sea waves
• Palm trees
• Species of fish at the shore (also applies to wildlife)
• Atolls/lagoons
• White sand
• Good weather/tropical

And the wild life (natural environment) exploration activities there are mainly explored with snorkelling or scuba diving activities:

• Coral reefs
• Whale sharks/manta rays
• Turtles

Tourism has both positive and negative impacts on Maldives. First of all, tourism brings many benefits. Firstly, it generates employment for the tertiary sector in the country – it brings in about $600 million a year and it also accounts for 90% of the government’s revenue. Secondly, through working in the tourism industry, local people can learn new skills and languages. Fourthly, when tourists spend money in local businesses, the multiplier effect takes place. In this way tourism generates 60% of all foreign currency earned. At the same time, infrastructures in Maldives are developed. The natural environment might be better preserved as they are attractions to the tourists.

However, at the same time, tourism also has lots of disadvantages. For instance, tourism activities are harming the natural environment — snorkelling and scuba diving are damaging the corals and the marine ecosystems. Also, the jobs of the local people are badly paid and some of them do not work in good working conditions. Most resort staffs in the Maldives are only paid $1500 SGD annually. Lastly, the narrowness of Maldives’ economy makes it highly vulnerable to external shocks beyond its control such as natural disasters, political strikes and steep rise in oil and gas prices or other commodities.

Tourism in the Maldives is managed in a few ways. Firstly, initiatives have been formed to reduce tourist numbers in groups, committing to long term plans that benefit locals by using local accommodation and so on. Also, the government states that for each island developed into a resort, one must be left as a reserve. Furthermore, recycling efforts are made within hotels such as the Furaveri Island Resort & Spa (Raa atoll) which has a water bottle plant on site, active for two years which recycles glass bottles for guests to use on excursions. There are strict fishing regulations enforcements to maintain fish stocks and preserve the reefs. At the same time, as the government is taking more initiative to support the sustainable tourism movement, tourists themselves are starting to become invested in sustainable tourism.

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Causes and Effects of Pollution

Human activities may cause water and air pollution. Choose an example which you have studied of either water pollution or air pollution. Describe the causes this pollution and its effects on people and the environment. [7]

Causes

• the discharge of harmful substances into rivers, lakes and seas
• Nitrate fertilisers are very soluble in water. They are easily washed off fields by rain, and then into rivers and lakes. Because nitrates are soluble they cannot easily be removed from the water.
• Pesticides used by farmers include herbicides (to kill weeds) and insecticides (to kill insects). These substances may be washed or blown into rivers and lakes.
• Human sewage is another source of water pollution. If untreated sewage gets into rivers, microorganisms decompose it. They use oxygen from the water for aerobic respiration. As a result there is less oxygen dissolved in water, so aquatic organisms such as fish and insects may be unable to survive.

Impacts

• Eutrophication

Eutrophication encourages the growth of algae. These form a green bloom over the water surface, preventing sunlight reaching other water plants. These plants die because they are unable to carry out photosynthesis. Bacteria decompose the dead plants, respiring and using up the oxygen in the water as they do this. The low oxygen levels make it difficult for aquatic insects and fish to live, and eventually the lake may be left completely lifeless.

Local people loses clean water sources, food sources (animals living in the water) and some land animals might decrease in number as they might be closely linked to animals living in the water.

Research for all Case Studies

Location: Borneo
Economic activity: Deforestation

General Introduction

Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia, covering an area of roughly 297,000 square miles. Deforestation is severe in Borneo in the past 5 decades. In 1973 forest covered 75% of the land area in Borneo and this had reduced to 30% by 2010.

Causes of Deforestation

1. Logging

During the 1980’s to 1990’s, logging was taking place in Borneo at a rapid rate. This is from the fact that the government gave some of the land with the rainforest and the best way they could utilise it is to harvest the wood. Eventually logging became illegal in Borneo, but logging still exists on Borneo to this day.

2. Agriculture

One cause of deforestation is agriculture as land needs to be cleared in order to make space for palm oil and pulp plantations. In Indonesia palm oil production has increased from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 6 million hectares by 2007. The continued expansion of these industries will come at the cost of the life of animals, habitats, and ecosystems as a whole.

3. Fuel

A cause of the rapid deforestation of the Borneo Rainforest is the amount of wood fuel needed to be used for cooking, heating and industrial uses. Wood remains the chief source of fuel in rural areas and also contributes to the Urban consumption. Some sectors of the industry in Southeast Asia depend on the fuel wood entirely. Between 1980 and 2000 more round wood was harvested from Borneo than from Africa and the Amazon combined.

Effect of deforestation on the local natural environment

1. Lack of oxygen and destruction of ecosystems

Borneo has 5% of all species in the world. Large animals like orangutans and elephants are especially prone to this as they need large areas of land to survive. The destruction of ecosystems has caused species dying out and the decrease of biodiversity. Roads built for tree cutting also affects smaller species as this leads to the separation of habitat ranges.

2. Air pollution (haze)

Palm oil plantations, pulp plantations, illegal logging and the forest fires are the key drivers to deforestation in Borneo. This can lead to even more harmful effects as Palm Oil plantations are burnt once used, causing what we know as haze, which is bad for animals as well as humans. This affects  people in Borneo and around South East Asia. In Palangkaraya, the capital and the largest city of Central Kalimantan in Borneo, more than 500,000 people to suffer from respiratory ailments in 2015.

3. Soil erosion

As trees are uproots, and cut down, the earth that is held together by roots can be easily washed away with rain or drainage. This can lead to the destruction of habitats especially plant life on the shrub level of the rainforest. Without soil, they have no nutrients and nowhere to ‘root’ themselves. 

Effect of deforestation on the global environment

1. Lost of world’s biodiversity

Deforestation leads to the loss of biodiversity, not just in Borneo, but all over the world. More than 80% of the worlds species remain only in the tropical rainforest. It is estimated that about 50-100 species are being lost each day. This is because the animals are losing their habitat.

2. Climate change / Global Warming

Destroying the forests mean that more CO₂ will remain the atmosphere as there are less trees to absorb it. This will not only alter the climate of the region, but also the average temperature of the whole globe. An enhanced global warming is caused as an excess of sunlight is being trapped inside the the atmosphere of Earth that is thickened due to the emitted CO₂. Many animals around the world depend on the wet climate of the tropical rainforests and cooler temperature but with deforestation the forests become drier and hotter, killing many animals from harsh weather conditions.

Effects of deforestation on people in Borneo

Haze

Haze is caused by the burning of woods in the process of deforestation. It is detrimental to people’s health. In 2015, haze in Palangkaraya, the capital and the largest city of Central Kalimantan in Borneo, causes more than 500,000 people to suffer from respiratory ailments. Haze also creates conditions that can support many serious pathogens such as malaria and the Nipah virus.

Soil erosion

[The part before about soil erosion]. Soil erosion causes severe impacts on local people. Firstly, from the aspect of agriculture, soil erosion removes top soil which is the most productive part of the soil profile for agricultural purposes, reducing the soil’s ability to store water and nutrients and possibly causes losses of newly planted crops. This will result in lower yields and higher production costs in Borneo.

Also, some toxic substances like nutrients, fertilisers and herbicides or pesticides, causing fish dying off in the water. This causes a loss of food source for people living in the polluted area. Also the fishing industry will be hugely impacted as less fresh fish could be caught in the area.

Cover Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash

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So we walked into the nursery. To my surprise, the nursery looked normal: no dead plants, no broken pots, everything were in place as good as when we left it. The nursery was the place at the corner of our school, away from the buildings and just next to the dormitory and the clinic. Very little students might want to go there, partly because it looks so simple that no one would look at it for a second time, and partly because that it looks wet — how could it be not wet if it was designed for Southeast Asia Rainforest plant species? A few simple poles, a large cloth tied onto the poles acting as a roof, and that was the appearance of the nursery. There were sunlight shining through the cloth onto the racks of plants underneath it, the light of life, providing enough food and energy for these Southeast Asia plant species. It is probably because of the rains during the CNY holiday. The only thing is that there was a strong odor of poop — some careless students might come over here during the holiday and knocked over the fertilizer bin.

But that was not a problem. We started on the works. Our student leader Nancy was quarantined at home due to the novel Coronavirus, but she told us that we had been too kind on the weeds that they were all over the nursery, even on the artificial grass. So that was the work to do for some of us.

For me, the task was to replant several trees of the species Sterculia macrophylla. These trees had been planted by us in black plastic containers as seeds, now that they had grown much bigger and the small plastic container couldn’t hold it anymore, we will need to plant it into another pot.

This was like any other normal works in our service, it was just that this time I realized something else. Rainforest Restoration Project was the first college service I have tried out that interact with the plants in our campus so much. Before I enrolled in the service, I thought what I would learn from it is probably to get out of my comfort zone and be more bearable to muds, dirts and be more tolerable to the harsher environments. Today, I truly understand what it means by the interaction between humans and the environment. It isn’t that the humans could bear to stay with the environment, neither is it that humans could learn to do weeding or other works without feeling disgusted. It is more of how people started to get appealed and attracted by the environment, by its beauty. I won’t feel that way towards nature if I didn’t join the service, since I just feel that it is dirty to touch the muds and the unwashed pots. What really changed my mind was a member that was in the same service with me. She was really fond of biology and was an expert at planting plants.

When we were replanting the Sterculia macrophylla plants together today, while I was reluctant to touch the mud, she calmly lifted the plant out of the plastic container without a second thought, clearing the mud around its roots and, slowly and lightly, placed it into the pot. The way she took the roots out of the mud, how she hold tightly around the branches of the plant without the slightest reluctance, as if what was in front of her wasn’t a muddy wet plant with its curly roots, and instead a pet, a friend that she would be willing to spend lots of time with and put her love into her interaction with it.

In my last school and the school before that one, our class had several attempts in making our classroom greener by planting classroom plants. These plants were always put at the place where everyone could see, not the place where it was the most suitable for the plant. It was always our teachers who watered the plants and asked the reluctant students to do it with her, and no one actually liked the process. When there were weeds that were growing in the pot, no one wanted to clear that away — isn’t our aim making our classroom greener? Now weeds are also green, why shouldn’t we keep it? I mean, these are all perfectly normal, but I feel like what I did in my past schools, planting the plants and watering them, were not actions out of love and adoration. These works were compulsory to do, and we did it not out of our true hearts, and if we felt happiness from doing so, it was because we felt that we were the only class who had done something like this and we did not have to go to academic lessons and did maths or wrote essays. It was never because of something I felt today when I saw that girl ran her fingers on the bark of the plant, putting soil around its roots as if helping it to go to bed, putting the layer of mulch in a ring shape and watering it with a joyful smile.

When I looked at the nursery again, I no longer felt that it was a rainforest that no one cares if they died during the holiday or the term break. We are all taking care of it, all of us, the service students, teachers, the gardener, biology students. We had gently filled the mud in gently for all of them, and undeniably, they are our friends. Plants live in a completely different way compared with us, but we live in the same world and rely on each other. How amazing.

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Is East Coast Park natural?

East Coast Park is actually built entirely on reclaimed land at a cost of S$613 million. The newly reclaimed land is constructed by dumping sand on top of marine clay.

What did people do to stop / slow down the process of erosion?

At first, artificial ‘headlands’ were constructed. These headlands were supposed to protect parts of the coast, and leave parts in between to erode naturally to form nice bays. But the bays eroded faster than anticipated, infrastructures are destroyed by the waves. So then, we have

Other Strategies:

• Building sea walls
• Building rock groynes
  • To stop long shore drift
• Beach nourishment

Sea Wall

A sea wall is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a sea wall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation and leisure activities from the action of tides, waves, or tsunamis.

Rock groynes (防波堤)

A Rock Groyne is a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or from a bank (in rivers) that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment.

Beach Nourishment

Beach Nourishment replaces beach or cliff material that has been removed by erosion or longshore drift. Its advantages are that it is relatively inexpensive, natural defense against coastal erosion and that it can attract tourists. On the other hand, it needs constant maintenance to replace the beach material after it has been washed away.

Comparison between 3 strategies

Since there are important and expensive infrastructures near the coast, the Singapore Government is currently exploring new strategies with the Dutch engineers. Possible strategies:

• Big Concrete embankment
• Raising the height of buildings
• Soft methods: Planting mangroves and seagrass beds

Guiding Questions

How has East Coast park changed over time?

At first, East Coast Park does not exist, until the land was reclaimed from the sea and East Coast Park was built on the reclaimed land. Later, serious coastal erosion started taking place, artificial headlands were built to form natural bays and to slow down the process, but the process was quicker than expected and many new strategies were adopted.

What kinds of land uses are there at East Coast? 

Important infrastructure like the ECP (which cost S$225 million), Changi airport, tourist developments HDBs, Private housing, and the S$250 million Laguna Golf resort are all at East Coast.

What landforms may be seen at East Coast?

Coast, discordant coastlines such as artificial bays and headlands.

What processes may be taking place there? 

Weathering could happen first, leaving the weathered rocks or beach materials in their original places. Coastal erosion could take place after weathering, for example, eroding beaches and rocks by the processes of attrition, hydraulic action, solution, and abrasion.

Why does East coast need to be managed?

Because many important and expensive infrastructure and buildings are built at East Coast. If it is not managed, there will be huge economic losses from the destruction of the buildings, the decrease in foreign visitors. There is also going to be severe consequences in the local ecosystem from the disturbance of the natural environment if buildings collapse into the sea. In order to prevent all of these, East coast have to be managed.

What strategies are being used to manage the beaches at East Coast? 

Both hard and soft engineering managements are being used to manage the beaches at East Coast. Hard engineering management like building sea walls and rock groynes, the SG govt. was considering the explore other methods like raising the height of buildings and building big concrete embankments. Soft engineering managements were also adopted, such as beach nourishment using materials from Singapore itself, imported from Indonesia and Cambodia. The SG govt. also planned to plant mangroves and seagrass beds to increase natural protection and to make hard engineering managements more sustainable.

How are these and other human activities changing the shape of the coastline at East Coast Park?

Coastal erosion has slowed down so the decrement of coastline at East Coast Park has eased. The artificial headlands and bays formed an artificial discordant coastline at East Coast Park.

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