Saving Singapore's Native Pollinators, One Hive at a Time

The Challenge: When Urban Development Meets Wildlife

For Singapore's native honeybees, one of the greatest threats is not disease or predators, but urbanization.

As development continues across the city-state, bee colonies increasingly find themselves sharing space with homes, businesses, and other urban environments. When that happens, the outcome is often fatal.

"If they are found in some corner… pest control will spray them dead with insecticide," explained Clarence Chua, founder of The Sundowner Bee Rescue.

The loss of these colonies carries consequences far beyond the bees themselves. Honeybees play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, pollinating approximately 70 percent of the lowland tropical rainforests in the region. 

"Without bees, you don't get your forests, and you don't get one-third of the food crop we eat, globally," said Chua, demonstrating the wider impact of risks to the insects.

Despite their importance, resources remain limited. Singapore is home to just three bee rescue organizations dedicated to relocating colonies that would otherwise be destroyed.

The Solution: Giving Rescued Bees a Second Home

One of those organizations is The Sundowner Bee Rescue, a non-profit initiative founded by Chua to rescue, rehabilitate, and relocate native honeybee colonies.

The work is demanding, physical, and often unpredictable.

"We go there, we spend blood, sweat, and tears literally. I get cut, stung... I look fine today, but trust me, tomorrow I may look different—ask my wife. And then we rehabilitate them, and they start their new life in the box," Chua said.

The "box" Chua refers to is a critical part of the rescue process. Once rescued, colonies are relocated to apiaries, sites where beehives are maintained and managed, in locations including Bukit Timah and Changi Village. There, away from the homes, buildings, and urban spaces where they were discovered, the bees can establish themselves safely and continue their natural lifecycle.

A key part of that process is ensuring suitable habitats are available. The conservation effort focuses on Apis cerana, Singapore's native Oriental honeybee. These bees naturally construct eight honeycombs within a cavity before part of the colony swarms to establish a new home elsewhere. Providing appropriate hives creates opportunities for rescued colonies to continue that cycle.

WLG | impact in Action

For WongPartnership LLP, host of WLG | summit Singapore '26, sustainability was not simply a conference theme; it was woven throughout the event experience.

The firm intentionally selected the Mandai Rainforest Resort as the summit venue, recognizing the increasing importance of sustainability across the global business landscape and its significance within Singapore's own development agenda. The property, developed and managed by Banyan Group, was designed around principles of environmental stewardship, biodiversity, and coexistence with nature, making it a fitting setting for conversations that would feature prominently throughout the summit.

"This resort is unique because it's designed and built, as you can tell, based on being at one with nature, being at one with wildlife, being ecologically and environmentally friendly, and being sustainable," said Andrew Ang, WLG Key Contact Partner for WongPartnership.

The connection was especially meaningful given WongPartnership's longstanding relationship with Banyan Group. The timing of the summit itself was planned around the completion of the new resort, allowing delegates to experience firsthand a property built with sustainability at its core.

That commitment was evident throughout the venue. Mandai Rainforest Resort incorporates a range of environmentally conscious features, including rooftop solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, wildlife-sensitive lighting, and rooftop bee conservation gardens. The presence of these rooftop apiaries made bee conservation a particularly fitting focus for the summit's WLG | impact activity, creating a direct connection between the venue's environmental philosophy and the local initiative delegates were supporting.

The sustainability conversation extended beyond the venue itself. Delegates also heard from Ho Kwon Ping, Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Group, in conversation with Simon Tay, Senior Consultant at WongPartnership, during a keynote discussion exploring sustainability and geopolitics.

Against this backdrop, WongPartnership worked to identify a local initiative that would allow delegates to contribute directly to environmental conservation in Singapore.

The resort's emphasis on biodiversity, conservation, and responsible stewardship aligned naturally with the objectives of WLG | impact, creating an opportunity to connect summit discussions with practical local action.

Originally launched as a platform for member firms to share environmental and social initiatives from their own jurisdictions, WLG | impact has evolved to include hands-on activities at conferences and regional meetings, creating opportunities for delegates to collectively support causes in host communities.

"The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Forum started with a lot of best practices, and ESG in the law firm workplace, and the reactions were great. Some firms embraced these new initiatives, which became annual traditions within their organizations. Later, at the summits and regional conferences, we began giving a little taste of impact as a collective," said Janet Pahima, Chair of WLG's Corporate Social Responsibility Forum, explaining the evolution of the WLG | impact program.

In Singapore, that collective experience meant partnering with The Sundowner Bee Rescue.

Led by Chua, delegates transformed discarded wooden wine crates into functional beehives that would soon house rescued honeybee colonies.

"These boxes that are in front of you are not meant to contain wine bottles anymore; they're going to house honeybees in around one week's time–real-life honeybees that we rescue," Chua told delegates.

Participants painted and weatherproofed the crates, drilled entry points for bees, assembled internal supports, and constructed the frames that will ultimately hold honeycombs. Working in teams, delegates and guests moved between assembly stations, applying a mix of carpentry, problem-solving, and collaboration skills to transform discarded materials into functioning homes for rescued honeybees.

Building a Lasting Impact

The workshop was not designed as a symbolic exercise.

The hives assembled during the summit were intended for immediate deployment within Sundowner's apiaries, providing homes for rescued colonies within days of the event. These were not demonstration pieces or decorative "bee hotels"—they were working hives built for active conservation use.

Each completed hive expands Sundowner's capacity to relocate and rehabilitate native honeybee colonies that might otherwise face extermination. At the same time, the project gives new purpose to discarded wine crates and reclaimed wood, extending the life of materials that would otherwise be discarded.

The activity also reflected the broader themes that shaped the summit itself. By connecting conservation, reuse, and community action, delegates contributed to an initiative that addressed a local environmental challenge while supporting Singapore's native pollinators.

What emerged was more than a conference activity. It was a practical contribution to an ongoing conservation effort that will continue long after delegates returned home.