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To shore up Singapore's marine biodiversity, the National Parks Board (NParks) is planning a programme to grow and introduce 100,000 corals within the country's marine environment.

Minister for National Development Desmond Lee announced the new initiative on Jun. 19, at the 5th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium (APCRS) held at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

To improve coral resilience

The new initiative will be launched in 2024 and take place "over the next ten years and beyond".

Lee shared that NParks will spend the first few years developing Singapore's capacity for coral cultivation, such as by expanding existing coral nurseries and exploring new methods to promote coral growth, before scaling up transplanting efforts.

"By restoring existing reefs and establishing new ones, we will substantially improve the resilience of coral populations in Singapore’s waters. In turn, they will support a thriving ecosystem of marine life," said Lee.

This latest programme announced today is the largest coral restoration and conservation project in Singapore, said Karenne Tun, director of the national biodiversity centre and co-chair of APCRS.

She shared that the project will be a "huge undertaking" due to the amount of resources required and will be carried out in a "phased approach".

More information about the programme will be available when it launches next year.

Tun added that NParks is currently working to identify key degraded reef areas in Singapore waters for the project, one of which are the "lower reef areas".

While many of Singapore's coral reefs are currently found in the first five meters of the reef, deeper parts of the reef are "not in the best condition" for coral growth.

Enhancing this area is one focus of the project.

Grown in nurseries and transplanted

NParks is collaborating with academic partners such as St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory for this initiative and community partners like the Friends of Marine Park.

According to NParks, the corals will be grown and nurtured from small nubbins in coral nurseries.

When they are large enough, the corals will be transplanted onto either degraded reefs for restoration purposes, or other areas to establish new coral communities.

Singapore is home to approximately 250 species of hard corals, and 32 per cent of known hard coral species can be found in Singapore's waters.

The project will augment existing efforts to restore Singapore's corals, one of which is the Garden City Fund’s Plant-A-Coral Seed-A-Reef programme, a platform where organisations and individuals can actively participate in the habitat enhancement efforts.

Lee revealed that close to 750 donors have contributed to the programme since its launch in 2016, enabling Singapore to plant more than 700 corals and install 16 reef enhancement units at the Sisters’ Islands Marine Park.

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Top images via Garden City Fund and Canva.