Amid Singaporeans' renewed interest in nature comes an exhibition that documents the change in the environment on the island over the past 400 years.

Through more than 150 books, maps, illustrations and specimens, the exhibition - Humans x Nature: Environmental Histories Of Singapore - at the National Library describes the devastation of the environment as a result of colonialism and capitalism, as well as its later partial rehabilitation.

It challenges visitors to reclaim their natural heritage.

Co-curator Georgina Wong said she was intrigued by the Wild West mentality in nature studies of the distant past. "The way that nature was studied back then was almost like it was a new frontier, where there were no laws, no rules. This was quite clear from reading early European accounts of hunting or trapping expeditions. Anything could happen then because nature and humans were so closely intertwined," she said.

"Today, most of us grew up in the city, so most of the nature we experience is in reserves or parks and gardens... But all the locations of our nature reserves are based on things that happened in the past. It's good to have that historical context."

The carefully curated items at the exhibition offer rich stories.

One of the first panels is on a young tapir that was kept by William Farquhar, the first British Resident of Singapore, as a pet for six months. He used it as part of his studies on a new species of tapir in Melaka, feeding it "indiscriminately on all kinds of vegetables".

"As tame and familiar as any of the dogs about the house," he wrote, "(the tapir was) very fond of attending at the table to receive bread, cakes, or the like."

Those visiting the exhibition can also get to learn about Mr Henry Corner, a former assistant director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and his two monkeys.

Called Puteh (White) and Merah (Red), the animals were trained to collect specimens in return for lemonade. Merah died after being sent up a poisonous tree, while Puteh bit Mr Corner on his arm, leaving him with a recurring infection that lasted years.

Ms Wong said that much of the source material for colonial times at the exhibition is from Western sources, but the curators made an effort to show that local systems of knowledge existed.

For instance, the centrepiece of a panel on indigenous knowledge is a 1930 list of Malay village medicine compiled by a European botanist and a Malay naturalist.

Despite framing village medicine as superstitious and backward, it set the Malay names of plants and their Latin scientific classifications side by side, lending them some equivalency.

In the post-colonial context, said Ms Wong, this could remind visitors that how we refer to things around us matters, with the colonial legacy impacting even the nomenclature of plants and marine life.

A short video on Orang Laut culture, produced by the community, is also included in the exhibition.

Mr Firdaus Sani, 33, whose family are some of the last Orang Laut residents of Pulau Semakau, said the knowledge of his people is unique. "Our knowledge of the sea, like how to de-poison pufferfish or capture mud crabs, is quite special. We feel the spirit of the sea lives on with us. It is an appreciation for food and nature that cannot be found elsewhere," he said. "By having our voices heard, we feel we have a claim on Singapore."

The exhibition tells a story spanning four centuries, from the intensive cultivation of land precipitated by the Europeans - which in turn destroyed much of Singapore's primary forests - to the ongoing efforts by locals to conserve the natural habitat today.

In between, the exhibition meanders through eyewitness accounts of coolies whose co-workers were attacked by tigers, and showcases special commemorative stamps issued as part of Tree Planting Day, which began in 1971 under the "garden city" campaign.

Associate Professor Farish Noor, who specialises in history at Nanyang Technological University and was consulted for the exhibition, said: "While not necessarily malevolent, the Europeans, in expanding their frontiers of knowledge, colonised everything they touched.

"They (at the time) created the South-east Asia that we now know, and today we have come to this point of climate crisis. We need a more humane modernity, one that sees ourselves not just as protectors of nature but as part of the natural world."