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SINGAPORE: Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) has set aside S$1 million to protect and save Singapore's native endangered species.
The newly-launched conservation fund will concentrate on native animal conservation efforts and the issue of climate change.
Group CEO of WRS, Fanny Lai, said: "We hope to encourage light-minded individuals and organisations that share the same cause to come forward to apply for this fund and be involved in discovering, learning, and protecting our biodiversity.
"And the other way that we can achieve this together is through our field conservation work, education and public awareness programme, human animal work conflict of resolution, capacity building in both Singapore and in the region, and through sharing of best practices."
The first recipient is the National University of Singapore's (NUS') Ah Meng Memorial Conservation Fund, which will receive S$500,000 over five years. This will support the academic research and study of endangered native wildlife undertaken by students and faculty members of NUS.
NUS' director of special projects, Leo Tan, said: "The first project that we'll be working on is a detailed study of the ecology of banded monkey or the banded leaf monkey. They call it the banded langur.
"And this is a very small population in Singapore - there are maybe less than 30 of them. They are very endangered species. In fact, they are one of the only four primate species in Singapore.
"This study will help us to determine their feeding habits, how far they range to search for food, and also what kind of food they eat, to have a better understanding of whether we can help to preserve this population."
The WRS Conservation Fund was launched at the Singapore Zoo on Friday, with President SR Nathan as the guest-of-honour.
Individuals and organisations will soon be able to submit project proposals to the WRS Conservation Fund. Funding support will be subject to approval by an independent Specialist Panel. More information can be found at www.wrscf.org.sg.
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