Singapore, Philippines Deepen Conservation Partnership to Protect Megadiverse Ecosystems

Across Southeast Asia, the living world is collapsing at a pace that numbers alone cannot quite capture. Eighty-five percent of the region's mammals face extinction. Two-thirds of its birds are sliding toward the same edge. The Philippines, home to species found nowhere else on Earth, sits at the center of this crisis—one of only seventeen megadiverse countries on the planet, a distinction that carries both weight and responsibility.

Into this urgency has stepped an unlikely partnership. Singapore-based Mandai Wildlife Group, which operates five zoos across the city-state, has made the Philippines a major focus of its conservation work. The organization manages more than twenty-one thousand animals across five facilities—the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Wonders, Rainforest Wild Asia, and Bird Paradise—drawing over four million visitors annually. Nearly a quarter of the one thousand species in their care are threatened with extinction. Three percent are native to the Philippines. This matters because zoos, in the modern conservation model, are no longer merely places to see animals. They are insurance policies against oblivion.

The strategy binding this work together is called the One Plan Approach. It is deceptively simple: protect species in the wild while simultaneously maintaining healthy populations in human care, creating redundancy against catastrophe. Bird Paradise holds the only populations of three Philippine bleeding-heart pigeon species—the Negros, Mindanao, and Luzon varieties—housed anywhere outside the Philippines. The organization also maintains what it calls "insurance populations" of the critically endangered Philippine eagle, the Negros bleeding-heart pigeon, and the Philippine cockatoo, held under wildlife loan agreements with the Philippine government. These are safeguards. If the wild populations collapse, these animals survive.

In January 2025, that model proved itself. Ten Negros bleeding-heart pigeons, bred at Bird Paradise, were repatriated to the Philippines for the first time. The birds had been born in captivity in Singapore, raised by a team of veterinarians and animal care specialists, and then returned home. It was a milestone achieved in partnership with the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Talarak Foundation—a concrete demonstration that the approach works, that species can be held back from the edge.

The work extends far beyond breeding programs. Mandai Nature, the conservation arm of the wildlife group, supports more than forty conservation projects across Southeast Asia. Nine operate in the Philippines, targeting more than twenty species: the Palawan forest turtle, the Visayan warty pig, the Visayan hornbill, the Philippine pangolin. In Palawan, teams conduct night surveys to monitor turtle populations. In Davao, Mandai specialists visit the Philippine Eagle Foundation to share clinical expertise and build capacity. In the Sulu Archipelago, recent sightings of nesting pairs of the critically endangered Sulu hornbill—a species with fewer than thirty individuals left in the wild—have prompted renewed conservation planning after years of pandemic-related delays.

What distinguishes this partnership is its structure. It is not a top-down intervention by a wealthy institution imposing solutions. Instead, it weaves together the Philippine government, local non-governmental organizations, indigenous groups, and communities. Mandai Nature has co-organized workshops with the International Union for Conservation of Nature that bring together NGOs, government representatives, researchers, and local communities to identify threats and coordinate recovery plans. The Philippine Eagle Foundation's work protecting wild eagle populations explicitly secures nesting sites and ensures that conservation efforts benefit indigenous communities whose lands these birds inhabit. The Katala Foundation's breeding and rehabilitation programs in Palawan operate as partnerships, not solo efforts.

Cheng Wen-Haur, deputy CEO of Life Sciences and Operations at Mandai Wildlife Group, frames the work this way: by protecting wildlife in natural habitats while maintaining a safety net in zoos, the organization helps ensure survival on both fronts. Having Philippine species in Singapore parks raises the profile of the country's unique biodiversity and provides a platform to share conservation stories. Sonja Luz, CEO of Mandai Nature, adds that conservation is never a solo journey—it requires trust, collaboration, and shared vision across borders and communities. As these ties deepen, they offer something beyond species survival. They offer a model for how bilateral relations can be strengthened not through trade or investment alone, but through coordinated action rooted in respect for nature and people. The question now is whether this model can scale fast enough to match the speed of loss.