Wild ideas for mangrove restoration at Pulau Ubin

An awesome workshop about mangrove restoration! Thanks to enthusiastic participants who came to Pulau Ubin to visit the mangroves and share their ideas. This workshop is organised by youths of Lepak In SG for International Year of the Reef 2018 with the support of the National Parks Board and Restore Ubin Mangroves (R.U.M.) Initiative.

Missed the workshop but have ideas for mangrove restoration? No worries, just share your ideas on the R.U.M. online survey! https://tinyurl.com/restoremangroves


The day began early morning with a round of introductions. Only on Ubin will kampung dogs join in a workshop!

The workshop began with a brief introduction to the Restore Ubin Mangroves (R.U.M.) Initiative and work done on Pulau Ubin to let Mother Nature do the planting.

The workshop includes a visit to an actual restoration site, which includes Walking The Plank. Thanks to NParks for arranging the planks and taking care of us throughout the workshop!

We are lucky to have Phillip Lim and Sea Angel volunteers to help share real ground experience of mangroves.

The participants were very sporting and cheerfully walk the muddy path through thick vegetation!

Wild boar had created huge holes in the path as they wallowed in the mud. Probably to coat themselves with mud which is cooling and also repels bugs.

Participants are actually more knowledgeable than us, and shared how such clams (Lokan) were traditionally harvested.

Expert participants sharing special mangrove snails which show that this Ubin mangrove is quite healthy.

We made it out alive!

We stopped by Teck Seng's Place, a kampung house restored by NParks as a demonstration model. Where Uncle Lim gave a great tour, giving participants a glimpse of life in days gone by.

Throughout the trip, we enjoyed huge bunches of lucious Ubin rambutans kindly provided by Uncle Phillip!

We had lunch at Ubin, a great way to have a delicious meal as well as to support the village shopkeepers. After which, we regrouped to brainstorm ideas for mangrove restoration.

What fun we had!

So many wonderful ideas!

Here's a look at some of the awesome ideas!

Do you have ideas for mangrove restoration? Please share on the R.U.M. online survey! https://tinyurl.com/restoremangroves

All this feedback will be incorporated in an upcoming two-day workshop organised by NParks. It features Mr Ben Brown (Founder of Blue Forest) and pioneer of Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) in Asia. He will share his experience and facilitate discussions on possible designs for mangrove restoration. Prof Dan Friess from NUS will share his findings on EMR conducted on Pulau Ubin. While Tessa Liu, IYOR intern for R.U.M., will share on the feedback she has gathered from Ubin villagers and via the online survey.

This article first appeared on the Restore Ubin Mangrove (R.U.M.) Initiative blog.