By Grace Chua
SCHOOLCHILDREN will be able to learn about Singapore's plants and animals right in the midst of nature - and follow up their lessons with volunteer and outreach activities.
The Nature Keeper programme, launched on Thursday by the National Parks Board at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, aims to reach 1,000 primary-school-aged children in the next two years.
It consists of a series of workshops, led by trained NParks staff, on topics like native ecosystems, how to reduce the conflict between people and nature, and forests' role in taking up carbon dioxide to cool the earth.
After the workshops, children and their families are invited to take part in volunteer activities like roadshows or Operation No Release, to discourage people from releasing animals into nature reserves.
The workshops are free for individual sign-ups on scheduled dates, though school groups scheduling workshops outside those dates pay $5 per child.
The Nature Keeper programme is sponsored by a $55,000 contribution from Mitsubishi via the Garden City Fund. >>>
