Singapore NParks launches 100K Corals Initiative, an extensive tech-based marine conservation effort

The National Parks Board (NParks) of Singapore has launched the 100K Corals Initiative, which aims to plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters over the next 10 years and beyond.

This marine conservation work by Singapore is of extreme importance, as coral reefs support life in the seas, and coral health reflects the general health of the marine ecosystem. Corals have been suffering because of global warming — the hotter waters of the seas and oceans have resulted in coral bleaching in parts of the world, including the famed Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

In view of this, the NParks coral initiative contributes to climate change mitigation.

A media release issued yesterday said that these corals would be cultivated at a new coral culture facility at NParks’ Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John’s Island, before being transplanted into the marine environment of Singapore, in order to restore degraded reefs or establish new coral communities.

This 100K initiative is the most extensive coral restoration effort in Singapore to date. Given Singapore’s limited coral cover, the programme will also scale up NParks’ existing coral restoration efforts.

NParks is working with the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory (SJINML) to roll out the 100K Corals Initiative, which has received over SGD 2 million in support to date.

Funds for the coral restoration initiative have been raised through the Garden City Fund, NParks’ registered charity and IPC (Institutions of a Public Character), from the following donors:

• Delta Electronics (approximately SGD 1.7 million)

• GSK-EDB Trust Fund (SGD 1 million)

• Deutsche Bank (SGD 100,000)

• Takashimaya Singapore

• KPI OceanConnect

To mark the launch of the 100K Corals Initiative, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee took part in a coral planting activity at the coral culture facility on December 10.

Lee posted a photo on Instagram with wildlife conservation legend Jane Goodall, who attended the launch of the coral initiative, and he gave “a big thank you” to the project donors for their “generous support”.

During the launch event, special guest Dr Jane Goodall DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, also did a sharing on marine conservation at the new coral culture facility.

New coral culture facility for ex-situ coral cultivation

The cultivation of corals at the new facility at NParks’ Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John’s Island will be carried out by coral restoration experts and researchers from the National University of Singapore at SJINML.

The coral species cultivated include several that are under NParks’ Species Recovery Programme, such as the Staghorn coral (Acropora digitifera) and Plate Acropora coral (Acropora millepora). The coral culture facility is targeted to be fully operational and open to the public in the second quarter of 2025.

The Species Recovery Programme was introduced in 2015 as part of NParks’ Nature Conservation Masterplan. It aims to conserve native flora and fauna by targeting endemic, rare or threatened native species in Singapore through reintroduction, habitat enhancement and protection efforts.

Serving as an ex-situ coral nursery, the NParks coral culture facility will house six tanks that can rear up to 600 coral nubbins each. The nubbins, which are small coral fragments produced from adult colonies, will be attached to a specially designed frame that maximises the number of corals that can be grown in the tanks, and grown under controlled conditions.

Once the nubbins have grown large enough, they will be transplanted onto degraded reefs for restoration purposes, or inserted into other areas to establish new coral communities.

Corals-of-opportunity, which are naturally fragmented corals lying free on the floor that may not survive without external intervention, could potentially be used as a source of transplant as well.

NParks-Delta Corals Research Programme

Established to kickstart the 100K Corals Initiative, the NParks-Delta Corals Research Programme is a collaborative project between NParks and Delta Electronics that integrates smart technology into NParks’ coral cultivation efforts.

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

The healthy growth of corals is dependent on several parameters, including lighting, temperature, water quality and water flow. Smart technology will be deployed to cultivate corals under controlled conditions in the tanks, enabling them to thrive without being subject to environmental stressors such as ocean warming and acidification.

The NParks coral tanks will be installed with a smart coral culture aquaculture system set up by Delta that integrates intelligent aquaculture and environment management.

Designed to detect abnormalities that can affect coral growth, the system monitors water conditions using various instruments and transmits the data to researchers, enabling real-time, remote monitoring and timely intervention.