The Good Stories Movement Celebratory Event

Media - News

Media
The Good Stories Movement Celebratory Event

July 29, 2024 | In the News

On 29 July 2024, APCEL hosted the Good Stories Movement Celebratory Event at JEN Singapore Tanglin. The event commemorated the success stories in protecting the environment in Singapore and highlighted the achievements of our pioneer environmental heroes, including individuals, NGOs and government agencies. In total, there were 34 recipients of the “Certificates of Global Gratitude”, comprising 30 individuals and 4 institutions.

APCEL is honoured to have Minister for National Development and Minster-in-Charge of Social Services Integration, Mr Desmond Lee; Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emeritus Professor Lye Lin Heng, former APCEL Director for taking time to speak at this event and present the certificates of achievements to our heroes.

The Good Stories Movement was started by Philippines Attorney Tony Oposa, who is best known for fighting for the rights of future generations to see a pristine forest (in Oposa v Factoran (1993)) and for tirelessly advancing environmental law in his country and worldwide. With the sharing of many good stories in different countries, the hope is to change the narrative from negative to positive, and to inspire others to take care of the environment. Previous events had been held in the Hague and New York. With APCEL’s researcher, Carol Yuen as emcee for the day, Attorney Oposa, ever positive and gregarious, had the audience singing several songs, including John Lennon’s “Imagine” enthusiastically throughout the afternoon.

Speeches were made with APCEL Director Jolene Lin sharing a personal observation on the need for environmental protection when she made a visit to the bird park with her family. As she watched the bird show and the audience, it had reminded her of what future generations may missed if efforts to protect the environment were sidelined. Guest-of-Honour, Minister Desmond Lee also shared the various government initiatives and efforts to continuously engage the community. He also spoke of contemporary urban environment challenges and gave examples such as managing human-wildlife conflict with respect to road traffic. Attorney Tony Oposa lauded Prof Tommy Koh’s leadership at global environmental conferences which had led to the formation of international environmental treaties, and his role in promoting environmental education and research in Singapore, bringing the global to the local. Prof Tommy Koh spoke of the community’s ability to be make small gestures with significant consequences. One example is singing. It lifts the human spirit and can deliver messages to the hearts of people. He shared a story of how singing had kept the native languages of Lithuania and Estonia under the Soviet Union. Finally, Prof Lye Lin-Heng, Emeritus Professor at NUS Law, spoke of Attorney Oposa’s tenacious spirit, citing how he had lead the cleanup of the Manila Bay in 1999.

“Certificates of Global Gratitude” were presented to organisations such as ACRES; the Nature Society (Singapore); past Nature Society (Singapore) presidents and leaders. The Certificates were also presented to individuals including our “Otterman” and “Butterfly Man” personalities, Mr Sivasothi N and Mr Khew Sin Khoon. Posthumous certificates were awarded to the late Dr Lawrence Leong, former Executive Director, National Parks, Gardens & Nature Reserves Cluster and Commissioner of Parks & Recreation, which was received by his family; and for Dr Lai-Choo Malone-Lee, who was the first director of the Master of Environmental Management (MEM) programme at NUS.

The certificates and thank you cards for Minister Lee and Attorney Oposa were designed by Ms Sekar Anandati Nugroho, a polytechnic student pursuing art and design here.

The event capped off with more singing, aptly, the two songs titled “My Way” and “What a Wonderful World”. APCEL is honoured to have our awardees and guests join us this afternoon, and we hope to hear more good stories for the future.

A list of the institutions and individuals who received certificates – a total of 34 recipients –and their citations is available here.