About The Biodiversity Collective

TBC stands for The Biodiversity Collective series. TBC plays on "To Be Continued" as we believe that biodiversity must be continued for generations, and that it's also not just something for experts/researchers to understand. But the learnings must continue for everyone because biodiversity is the bedrock of society!

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☕The Biodiversity Kopitiam: Sip & Learn

Kopitiam Edition: The Biodiversity Kopitiam allows attendees to Lim Kopi (Drink Coffee), and learn about various topics of biodiversity through 3 main segments.

The Biodiversity Kopitiam is hosted at a local cafe, to sip & learn about our local biodiversity, over small group coffee chats with a leading Biodiversity expert.

Topics can range from specific wildlife, research papers, nature experiences, advocacy and much more! Each TBC Kopitiam has its own unique theme.

24th June: Crawlies and Insects @ Foreword Coffee

Tiny Creatures, Big Impact

For this edition of TBC Kopitiam, we zoom in on the incredible world of insects, from the buzzing pollinators in our parks to the beetles hiding in plain sight across our city.

We do a round-table kopitiam style where attendees can choose up to 2 tables to rotate around and hear a speaker share their Biodiversity Insights & Knowledge for 20 minutes at a time, and rotate to your next table.

Whether you're a nature lover, art enthusiast, or just bug-curious — this is your chance to sit, sip, and rediscover the small lives that make our world work.


☕ Buy a coffee!
This event is free to attend, but participants will order a drink or snack at Foreword Coffee to support our host café. :)

About Foreword Coffee:
Not your average café — Foreword Coffee is where coffee meets cause.

Foreword Coffee is a coffee company and social enterprise with a mission to mainstream disability and normalize inclusion. They provide training and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and mental health needs, aiming to create an ecosystem of impact-driven partners working to uplift the lives of everyone.

Their commitment to positive impact extends beyond social inclusion to environmental sustainability, reflected in our daily practices:

• Return & Reuse initiatives to reduce waste and encourage a circular system.
• Upcycling used plastic bottles and caps into functional furniture used across our cafés.
• BYO Cup incentives to encourage customers to reduce disposable waste.
  
  The space itself is cozy, minimalist, and designed for conversations that matter. It’s the perfect spot to pause, learn, and connect, just like this TBC Kopitiam session.
  
  So come for the insects, stay for the coffee, and experience how a cup can spark change.
  
  💡 PS: Try their Timeless Yuan Yang - A double ristretto shot topped over an earl grey ice ball and milk.

Kopi Stall #1:

Wendy Zhang is an artist, educator, and researcher who weaves the worlds of art and science together through her love for insects. Based in Singapore, she creates delicate artworks and community projects that reveal the hidden beauty and importance of the small creatures that share our world. Wendy’s work invites curiosity, wonder, and reflection — encouraging people to see insects with appreciation. Her practice blends research, conservation, and creativity in ways that feel both personal and universal.

Kopi Topic: Insects are often introduced primarily through their ecological functions — as pollinators, decomposers and keystone species — yet the human-insect relationship extends far beyond these roles. In this talk, Wendy will explore the idea of a “relationship ecology” where cultural, emotional, and artistic interactions with insects form a shared ecosystem of coexistence. She will share how insects have inspired design, traditions and symbolism across societies, with art serving as a vital medium for expressing and shaping these connections.This perspective invites a deeper appreciation of insects not only as ecological agents, but as integral participants in our shared cultural and natural worlds.

Kopi Stall #2

Angelica See, a PhD student interested in land use ecology and insect biodiversity. Her interest in insects started during her undergraduate research project where plasticine caterpillars were used to study the effects of forest fragmentation on predation rates. By choosing insects as her subject of study, she hopes to contribute to local ecological knowledge that may inform future land use and conservation decisions in Singapore. The project involves the study of the effects of land use on tropical insect communities in Singapore. Malaise traps were set up for a year across forest patches of varying recovery quality/potential in Singapore. Insects were barcoded and compared with plant and forest structural data collected over the same time period. The project aims to understand insect biodiversity patterns in Singapore better, such as what factors may encourage insect biodiversity and shape insect community composition. The data can also contribute to the baseline ecological survey of insects in Singapore, where future sampling may uncover long term biodiversity trends.

Kopi Topic: Angelica will discuss Singapore’s land use history and the importance of conserving non-core forested areas, especially beyond just high plant biodiversity. She will explain why insects are critical to ecosystems and why their conservation matters, highlighting the role insects play in supporting ecological functions. The talk will cover the methodology used to sample insects, why it was chosen, and what the team expected to find versus the actual results—particularly the surprising richness and variation in insect diversity between sites. Angelica will also show how these findings build on existing research in Singapore and strengthen the case for integrating insect data into broader biodiversity and land management strategies.

Kopi Stall #3

Foo Maosheng a passionate entomology communicator and researcher based at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, NUS. With a deep love for insects—especially the often misunderstood ones like cockroaches and dung beetles—he is on a mission to discover as many species as possible and to shift public perception of these tiny yet vital creatures.He embodies the saying, “You are what you eat,” quite literally—contributing to a more sustainable future through the sharing and consumption of edible insects. He is part of the team that described the dazzling Nocticola pheromosa, a new species of cockroach named after a Pokémon character!

Mr Foo Maosheng studies the often overlooked diversity of cockroaches and termites in Singapore. Through fieldwork, morphological identification, and DNA barcoding, his work aims to document species richness and uncover the ecological roles these insects play as decomposers, pollinators, nutrient recyclers, and indicators of ecosystem health. By deepening our understanding of Blattodea biodiversity in Singapore habitats, his research supports ongoing efforts in species discovery, habitat conservation, and public appreciation for these misunderstood insects.

Kopi Stall #4

Ong Xin Rui, a Research Fellow from the NUS Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and NTU Tropical Ecology and Entomology Lab (TEE Lab). She does research on dung beetle diversity and conservation efforts in Southeast Asia.

Since her undergraduate years, Xin Rui has a soft spot for dung beetles. This group of insects occur in every terrestrial environment, and play essential roles in nutrient recycling, soil aeration and seed dispersal. In her current fellowship, Xin Rui is investigating the taxonomy and phylogeny of Southeast Asian dung beetles. Here, she uses integrative taxonomic approaches, which involves the combination of morphological traits and genetic information to determine how dung beetle species are related to one another. Through this research, new dung beetle species may even be discovered. This allows us to better understand the diversity of dung beetles in Southeast Asia.

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