We go back to Nature this year with the release of several nature stamps. But has this nature consciousness through stamps surfaced only this year? No, according to Pat Seward, an avid collector of British and Singapore stamps and an international journalist specialising in philatelic articles. The consciousness was evident since 1970. Pat Seward who has numerous articles on the stamps of Britain, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand to her credit, takes us on a nature excursion in the following article.
Environmental and 'green' issues have risen to the top of many nations' political agendas in recent years. Singapore, however, has long seen the need to protect the natural world both for its own sake and for the nation's mental and physical health. Numerous measures to promote the 'greening' of Singapore have been highlighted in stamp issues for more than 20 years.
Singapore's first environmental issue was a colourful set marking participation in the 1970 Osaka World Fair. Three stamps showed coral and seashells, guppies swimming gracefully in clear blue water and purple orchids against a soft, green backdrop. The fourth featured a pink flamingo and a hornbill.
In 1973, two sets of definitive stamps with fruit and flower themes emphasized Singapore's commitment to transform the island into a green and pleasant land. The low value set displayed nine humble but well-known species of flowers found in many homely gardens. Each flower was presented as seen from above, in stylised form. The next set of four high values featured common tropical fruits - mangosteen, jackfruit, coconut and pineapple.
By 1976, extensive tree planting schemes had contributed substantially to the garden city image and an annual National Tree Planting Day, inaugurated in 1963, raised public awareness of the value of trees. Four widely used trees were featured on the commemorative Wayside Trees set - the magnificent Yellow Flame, the quick-growing Cabbage Tree, the lovely Rose of India with its pink to lilac flowers and the colourful Variegated Coral Tree.
Without its shady trees, parks and gardens, Singapore might well have become a hot concrete jungle. Instead, they provide cool havens of rest and relaxation in our garden city and were recognised in two special issues of the late 1970s. The first was the Parks and Gardens issue (1978). Its three values featured four of Singapore's green spaces - the Esplanade, the Jurong BirdPark and the East Coast Park as well as the Botanic Gardens. The second paid tribute to the Botanic Gardens - one of the world's finest tropical gardens, on its 120th anniversary in 1979.
Orchids appeared in 1976 and 1979. The former issue highlighted the unusually beautiful hybrid Arandas and the latter, the Vanda species. While these showy and commercially important flowers basked in the limelight, Singapore's common shrubs were remembered in Flowers of Singapore (1980). Here, the scarlet Ixora and Allamanda with its trumpet-like yellow blooms; the perennial, pale blue Sky Vine and the purple Bougainvillea were depicted.
In recent years, at least two sets continued the green theme. Local Fruits (1986) featured the guava, jambu air, rambutan and ciku and reflected that the illustrated varieties were then commonly grown and consumed in the Southeast Asian tropical region.
The River Life issue (1987) harked back to 1977 when former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew opened the Upper Pierce Reservoir and urged purification of Singapore's waterways within a decade. A mammoth task - this resulted ten years later in the substantially cleaner Singapore River, Kallang Basin and adjoining tributaries. Today, these waterways are being tapped for recreational, cultural and social purposes that will benefit present and future generations. The three stamps of this issue commemorated this environmental triumph.
If current trends continue, Singapore stamps will continue to reflect 'green' as the buzz-word of the nineties. The Ferns of Singapore (1990) highlighted four contrasting species common in Singapore. The recent Singapore '95 Orchids issue has again showcased the unique orchid flowers. With two more issues on flowers and another on birds underway, Singapore's 1991 philatelic programme looks set to focus more closely than ever on the environment.
