IJoining the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves (SBWR) team as an intern has given River Valley High student Zhang Yi Jie an opportunity to learn not just about the work done by the SBWR team, but also the value of conserving nature...

Henry Nicholas Ridley, the first director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens (1888 - 1911), during his fieldwork conducted at various parts of Singapore, had the joy of seeing ample varieties of gingers and its allies. Fast-forward some 120 years and here we are, with 11 species presumed nationally extinct, the remaining 14 species classified as critically endangered or endangered, and one considered 'only' vulnerable.

Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne once noted that "if moonlight could be heard, it would sound just like this". 'This' refers to the songs of crickets. Crickets, together with katydids and grasshoppers, belong to a group of insects known as the Orthoptera.

My first sighting of Baya Weavers was during my first bird watching session at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in 1998. They were busy flying from an area of long grass to their nesting site with grass to build their nests. As I watched them busy at work, I have been fascinated by them ever since.

Ask anyone from the public of what they think nature conservationists look like, along with the nature of their work, and you'd probably get a particularly unflattering response. There may be more than a few people out there who have a mental image of conservationists as being hard-line tree huggers who selfishly disregard people's needs for nature's sake.