FRANCE-SINGAPORE FORUM «NATURE IN THE CITY»

The National Museum of Natural History, Paris, organizes a Franco-Singaporean Forum on Nature in the City in Singapore on May 13-15th, 2024.

An official event of the France Singapore Joint Year of Sustainability, presented as part of the vOilah! France Singapore Festival, the Forum “Nature in the City” is a scientific and cultural event which aims at raising public awareness of current issues related to the knowledge, importance, function and preservation of biodiversity in urban areas.

The Forum will be opened by key figures from political and scientific institutions. It will then give the floor to French and Singaporean experts (researchers, as well as curators, business leaders, journalists, artists, associations…) through a series of conferences and multidisciplinary round tables, all followed by exchanges with the public. This Forum also has the objective of strengthening the bilateral cooperation of the MNHN with Singaporean institutions in scientific, academic and cultural fields.

The event is organised by the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN), France, in collaboration with the Embassy of France to Singapore and the Alliance française in Singapore, with the support of Kering.

The program of the forum includes:

• An official opening session, including speeches by scientific, political and socio-economic personalities and an inaugural lecture by Gilles BLOCH, President of the MNHN;
• An Introductory session focused on the City Biodiversity Index, also called "Singapore Index";
• A series of three round tables, all followed by discussions with the public, on the following topics:
  • "Nature in the city hosted in zoological parks, aquariums, botanical gardens, museums”
  • “Wild biodiversity in the city and relationships with humans”
  • “Nature in the city: Innovation and nature-based solutions”
• A final session on perspectives of future cooperation between France-MNHN / Singapore

The Forum will also launch a study on ‘Nature-Related Practices and Strategies in Asia-Pacific’ presented by the Centre for Governance and Sustainability, NUS Business School.

The France-Singapore Forum “Nature in the City” aims at gathering speakers from MNHN (Zoological Park of Paris, Botanical Gardens, Public Division, Multidisciplinary Research laboratories...) and City of Paris (Urban Ecology Agency) for France, and from various Singaporean institutions : NUS, NTU, National Parks Board, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National Museum of Singapore, City Development Limited, as well as representives of Singaporean civil society (corporation, architect, artist...).

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