Technical Tour of the Learning Forest for Students from Réunion Island

On March 21st 2018 we gave a technical tour of the Learning Forest at Singapore Botanic Gardens to a school group from the College les Aigrettes, Reunion island (La Réunion) who are visiting Singapore on an educational and cultural tour. The group of 17 students aged from 11- 16 years have worked wonders to transform their own School environment as part of their ‘Vague Verte’ (Green Wave) project under the guidance of their teacher, Sophie Auzeine.

At the Learning Forest

High on the Elevated Walkway above the Wetlands lake

We met them, hot and tired, in the late afternoon after they had already had a long day, but still managed to ask some of the most technical and interesting questions we have encountered with regards to the project.

The Bambusetum area at the Learning Forest 

Keppel Discovery Wetlands at the Learning Forest

Keppel Discovery Wetlands at the Learning Forest

Botanists' Boardwalk in the Keppel Discovery Wetlands in the Learning Forest

The students had many questions regarding the sourcing of plants for the Learning Forest, the basis of the selection of plants, and the mitigation of any issues that arose as part of the works. 

Plant species were selected to fulfill the requirements of the collections which are often based on natural habitat/ecological groupings such as the Pulai Marsh, or to showcase particular attributes of interest, as in the case of the Bark of Trees collection. 

An early Sketch Plan of the Theme areas with a few example species over original plant cluster plan.

As part of the framework planting at the Learning Forest over 1130 trees, comprising of over 200 tree species, were planted introducing 104 new tree species to the existing 113 tree species already found on site in the baseline study. In addition to this, Singapore Botanic Gardens have planted a great many more tree species to further expand this framework planting into the fully themed plant collections such as the Bark of Trees, Durian Theory, Products of the Forest, Wild Relatives of Fruit and Nut Trees, Swamp Forest, and the Walk of Giants.

Botanists' Boardwalk at the Learning Forest

View towards the Elevated Walkway

The project also involved transplanting 263 trees, 35 bamboos, as well as shrubs and other plants from within the site area, other areas of the Botanic Gardens, and other locations around Singapore where they were affected by development and would have otherwise be felled.

Question time while relaxing at the Canopy Web

Once again I was embarrassed by my hopeless French (as my French Touch Rugby team can attest!) and so my thanks go to Nicolas Auzeine for the difficult task of translating what were often long technical explanations.

Sophie Auzieine presented me with a Heritiera littoralis seed pod (Keeled-Pod Mangrove) and a Dunite stone from La Réunion

Group photo on the Canopy Web at the SPH Walk of Giants - Photo by Nicolas

We enjoyed showing the students around the Learning Forest in Singapore Botanic Gardens and wish them all the best in their future Green Wave projects.