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  Business Times Singapore 29 Jul 06
Welcome to green living
Cheah Ui-Hoon reports

For the Singaporean who wants to commune with nature and live sustainably further away from the maddening city, he may want to head for the Back-to-Nature eco-village in Trang, south Thailand.

IMAGINE living in a community of like-minded people, growing your own vegetables, staying in a solar-powered house, recycling anything that can be recycled - in order to be plugged into the cycle of nature and do minimal damage to the environment.

Eco-villages - which, by 21st century definition, are socially, economically and ecologically sustainable intentional communities - have sprouted in developed Western countries like the US and Europe in the last 10 years or so.

For the average Singaporean who's hankering to have a little plot of land of his or her own, to commune with nature and live sustainably further away from the maddening city, this idea of the modern 'eco-village' seems a little out of reach, if not confined to the fringes of Western society.

Until recently, that is.

Last week, an advertisement in a daily newspaper called for 24 'pioneer' families/individuals/companies who want to conserve nature and live an active outdoor life to be part of a 100-acre international eco-village located in Trang, South Thailand.

For a reserve fee of $49,000 for a 31-year lease for plots of land starting from 400 sq metres, pioneer members could be part of a plan to build a sustainable community cum country retreat, following the model of the world famous eco-village in Ithaca, New York.

The question is: will there be takers among Singaporeans? Possibly, judging by world trends.

'As Singapore becomes more developed and urbanised, it's more important that people can leave the city to destress. In most developed countries, when people have done well and know when enough is enough, they'll go back to the countryside,' says Ivy Singh-Lim, 54, co-founder of Bollywood Veggies in Kranji and arguably Singapore's most well-known proponent of the back-to-nature lifestyle.

Not that she'd be the first to pack up and go to Trang, however, having put in the stakes for her own 10-acre farm which she has operated since 2001, and has been actively lobbying for greater acceptance and awareness of Singapore's own countryside. (But more of this later.)

Commenting on the growing awareness of ecologically sustainable living, architect Tan Hock Beng, 44, notes that it's a rising trend in the West. 'It's a reaction against many things that result from urbanisation,' he notes. So yes, this is a direction that a growing number of Singaporeans could be looking towards, he adds. 'After all, global warming is a very real issue which could accelerate in the next few years and impact our lives,' he says.

He also pointed out that the government has also legalised things like collecting rainwater, which shows that, indeed, there's a greater sense of what people can do on their own to have good environmental practices.

He's optimistic that there just might be Singaporeans out there who are gung-ho enough to invest time and money in an eco-village in Asia.

Checks with the Back-to-Nature eco-village in Trang revealed that, indeed, it's a genuine 'appeal' - by a couple, both with academic backgrounds, even though the idea is at the inception stage.

Dr Intira Sriprasidh, 54, is a sociologist, while her husband, Dr Laurence Siaw, 63, is a social anthropologist. The couple had also lived in Singapore for three to four years, in the early 90s, when Dr Siaw was attached to the Institute of South-east Asian Studies.

'We're in the process of registering a Back-to-Nature Foundation to undertake this project, although we've run a non-profit organisation for about 10 years now,' says Dr Intira. She has a legally trained daughter with a doctorate in sustainable tourism management, who runs an independent non-profit organisation which promotes responsible travel in Trang's marine parks.

It's her family land that she's offering for this project, but instead of cashing out on it for a commercial project like a hotel - and the family has indeed received offers - she'd prefer to see something that's less commercial and also ecologically sustainable.

'We want this village to be a showcase or a living exhibition of an intentional community, in line with the models of eco-villages and co-housing that have already been set up in the West,' Dr Intira notes. After all, 99 per cent of Trang is bounded by sea, and it has three marine parks so the area is known for its eco-tourism.

As she points out, since there are already established Western models out there, they're not 'inventing the wheel', so to speak, 'Even though it's very new in Asia. It is a new alternative lifestyle, and a new type of human settlement,' she says.

Intentional communities are groups of people who decide to live in a way that allows them to have a higher degree of social interaction with each other, and usually adheres to a common vision; in this case, social.

A co-housing community is made up of an intentional community, where people live in private homes but share common facilities planned in such a way where there's more interaction with their neighbours.

She's also hoping to get the attention and participation of non-governmental organisations like nature societies or environmental action groups, or university departments who want to set up research stations, or even companies which want to start country retreats or training centres.

'The Trang-Krabi area is the best place as the land is not as expensive as Phuket and not too commercialised, and it's quite accessible to Singapore,' she says.

There are no restrictions on the use of the land, says Dr Intira, as long as the pioneer members - 48 in all, with the other 24 coming from international participants - follow the same vision and mission.

'Because it's a community, there are ground rules to follow,' she says. In other words, a family who wants a second home can build a vacation home there, although the house should be ecologically viable. Someone could also start an organic farm and sell the produce commercially.

'We're open to ideas. Because this is also the first time we're dealing with an eco-village model, what we want are pioneers who'll partner with us to shape the project,' Dr Intira notes.

Why did she and her husband decide to appeal to Singaporeans, though? 'Because we've lived in Singapore before, so we've an affinity with Singapore. We do know that there are Singaporeans who love nature, who'll be able to grasp this idea, and in a way, be more receptive to it because land is scarce in Singapore,' says Dr Intira.

Dr Siaw admits that the eco-village sounds utopian and could perhaps be a tad idealistic. 'But it's worth a try,' he says. 'You have to be idealistic to start off with. Someone told me once, that if you don't aim for the stars, how can you reach the moon?'

So why would this idea not appeal to someone like Mrs Singh-Lim? 'Because we don't want to be far from friends and family. Our initial plan was to retire in Perth, but when we read about a couple who set up a farm in Kranji, we realised that we could do it too.'

She's living proof that you could 'retire' in a farm in Singapore - 'there's plenty of land here' - but she'll admit, however, that she muscled her way through the red tape put up by government bodies which 'try to control you instead of helping you.'

'We're sitting on a 'green mine' in Singapore, as I like to say. The problem is that the government isn't 'progressive' enough to realise it. No one is taking ownership of the countryside. We should stop thinking of Singapore as a global city, and start thinking of it as a country,' she says.

An ex-fund manager, Lui Khang, 50, also doesn't see the need for individuals to go trooping off to an eco-village if they really wanted to live an ecologically responsible lifestyle. He had five years of 'back to nature' experience in the early 90s - when he lived on an island off the east coast of Malaysia that didn't have electricity or running water, and then later in Cameron Highlands.

'If you're talking about going up to Trang and setting up an eco-village, that should be an entire lifestyle change, not just a hobby. I don't think you can do it on a part-time basis. You either live it or you don't,' he says.

It's also a question of motivation, he believes. 'If one is motivated to live according to what you believe, then you can do it in Singapore also.'

Mr Lui is living in Singapore now, running a web-based business, and counts himself as better connected with nature now after his 'wilderness' sabbatical. He's reckons that it's only a very small number of Singaporeans who want or are able to live with better awareness of and responsibility towards nature - and those would have, like himself, found ways to do it already.

Could the Western idea of the kampung lifestyle - because that's essentially what eco-villages are - really take root in Asia, where there's no shortage of original, indigenous villages?

Only time will tell.

As Dr Intira and Dr Siaw note, their eco-village won't necessarily appeal to everybody, but perhaps to those who feel the need to get out of urban Singapore and try to live a life greener elsewhere.

For more information on the Back-to-Nature eco-village, go to www.longstay.trangsea.com,or email natureresorts@trangsea.com.

For Bollywood Veggies, check www.bollywoodveggies.com

Business Times Singapore 28 Jul 2006
Creating a community
By Cheah Ui-Hoon

THERE are true back-to-nature, rustic eco-villages where houses and other infrastructure are built from scratch by communities of like-minded people. And then there are the 'chic' ones - where money can buy you a well-planned integrated development, not necessarily ecologically sustainable - where you get your own posh space, but aren't too alienated from your neighbour of the same social strata.

The Leisure Farm Resort development in Nusajaya, Johor, for example, is a gated development on a 1,700-acre area that was developed with better community principles in mind, says its general manager, Ronn Yong.

'We developed this as an alternative housing model, by creating cluster homes where neighbours could share some common clubhouse facilities and amenities. I see it as a new kind of community living,' he says.

The development, under Mulpha International, recently launched a new phase of 213 villas that's designed to bring residents even 'closer to the olden ways of life'. Its 'Kampung Ku' cluster homes will be built on stilts along waterways and a green park, albeit with the modern lifestyle in mind - with its reflecting pool, private swimming pools and roof decks. Mr Yong notes that the model of this kind of development was based on Brisbane's Sanctuary Cove.

'We found that the social effect was better when you've a density of less than 22 units per acre, so we limit the development to 80 units in three acres, and 122 units in six acres. With that, there's a better chance of creating a community,' he says.

The benefits are that residents have a more relaxed living environment, they feel more ownership over the space and tend to know their neighbours.

Mr Yong notes that this model would take time to develop, although it's certainly a housing model for the privileged - given that prices for the water village homes, for example, start from RM480,000 (S$208,000) and go up to RM800,000, which is slightly above average, by Malaysian standards.
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