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| HSBC volunteers with CTFS Research Assistant Ngo Kang Min (right). |
by Ngo Kang Min
HSBC Singapore volunteers, in collaboration with CTFS and the National Institute of Education (NIE), have completed the first phase of a forest carbon survey.
The project, a long-term study of the accumulation of carbon in forest trees, will continue in 2011 with the second phase moving to the MacRitchie Reservoir, a primary forest adjacent to the secondary forest in which the first phase was conducted.
HSBC Singapore has donated S$45,000 for the second phase of the carbon survey, which will monitor more than 500 trees in the designated plots. HSBC Climate Champions and staff will continue to be engaged in the field, from putting dendrometer bands on trees to collecting leaf samples.
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| An HSBC volunteer tags a tree. |
This project complements the global HSBC Climate Partnership, where dendrometer bands have been installed in more than 10 sites in the CTFS network, including Bukit Timah in Singapore. This study will enable comparisons between the coastal hill forest of Bukit Timah and the lowland forest of MacRitchie. Carbon stock differences in primary and secondary forests at the two sites will also be examined for a better understanding of carbon sequestration in a matrix of multiple forest communities.