Urbanisation, the need for larger port facilities, land reclamation, and the development of tourist resorts and hotels are all taking their toll on mangrove swamps in LEDCs and MEDCs alike. Singapore, for example, was once an island almost completely surrounded by mangroves, but its huge infrastructural, housing, port and tourist developments over the last 40 years have left the mangroves restricted to a few peripheral creeks and to nature reserves such as the SungeiBuloh reserve on the north coast of the island, where boardwalks have been constructed through the swamps.