SINGAPORE LAUNCHES MOST EXTENSIVE CORAL RESTORATION PROJECT TO DATE 

SINGAPORE, Dec 10 (Bernama) -- Singapore’s lead agency for biodiversity conservation aims to plant 100,000 corals in Singapore's waters over the next decade and beyond, marking the island state's most extensive coral restoration effort to date.

The 100k Corals Initiative, led by Singapore’s National Parks Board (NParks), was launched on Tuesday and has received over S$2 million in support through the Garden City Fund.

NParks is working with the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory (SJINML) to implement the initiative.

The corals will be cultivated at a new coral culture facility at NParks’ Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John’s Island. These will subsequently be transplanted into the marine environment to restore degraded reefs or establish new coral communities.

“Given Singapore’s limited coral cover, the programme will also scale up NParks’ existing coral restoration efforts to substantially improve the resilience of local coral communities and reefs,” NParks said in a statement.

To support the initiative, the NParks-Delta Corals Research Programme has been established. This is a collaborative project between NParks and Delta Electronics, a global provider of power and thermal management solutions. The programme integrates smart technology into coral cultivation efforts.

As part of the two-year research programme, NParks will utilise Delta’s expertise in industrial and building automation to optimise large-scale coral cultivation at the coral culture facility.

Meanwhile, under the 100k Corals Initiative, NParks is setting up a new coral culture facility at the Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John’s Island. The facility is expected to become fully operational and open to the public in the second quarter of next year.

"Serving as an ex-situ coral nursery, the coral culture facility will house six tanks that can rear up to 600 coral nubbins each," NParks said, adding that the cultivation of corals will be carried out by coral restoration experts and researchers from the National University of Singapore at SJINML.

-- BERNAMA