Sir

Agoramoorthy and Hsu in Correspondence (Nature 410, 144; 2001) express the fear that, although Singapore is creating a genome project costing S$62 million (US$35 million) over five years, it is ignoring some serious environmental issues.

They suggest that the number of future students of ecology and conservation in Singapore may fall, and rightly point out that, as an economic giant, Singapore has the responsibility to care for its natural environment and to help to conserve natural resources in neighbouring 'mega-diversity' countries.

They mention the government's conservation fund and Wildlife Reserves Singapore. These are not, however, the only large and long-standing conservation efforts under way. For example, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has been very active in conservation work and biodiversity research for some 30 years. In 1998, the Raffles Museum for Biodiversity Research was established at the NUS, with a budget of about S$2.7 million, specifically to promote research on biodiversity and to deal with conservation issues in collaboration with the Singapore National Parks Board. These institutions have hosted hundreds of researchers from many countries who study biodiversity in Southeast Asia.

Between 1994 and 1999, NUS staff and students published some 300 articles, many in the leading scientific journals of their fields (Ng, P. K. L. National Science Museum Monographs (Tokyo) 18, 2–23; 2000). The NUS itself publishes the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, an international, peer-reviewed journal of faunal studies in Southeast Asia. The Raffles Museum for Biodiversity Research has been involved in joint research and training projects with neighbouring countries, notably Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Further, a new public exhibit gallery aimed at promoting public awareness and education in conservation opened on 15 June 2001 (see http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg).

We have been impressed by the enthusiasm of numerous graduate students dedicated to ecology, biodiversity and conservation research at the NUS. Contrary to the fears of your correspondents, much emphasis has been placed on such issues at the NUS over the past decade and we think that Singapore is well equipped to tackle them.

We hope that the government of Singapore will continue its commitment to and funding of biodiversity research and conservation in this rich island nation.