Forest clearance next to Lower Seletar Reservoir

The_King · March 1, 2021

Further to SH Lee’s post & query yesterday on NSS FB group regarding the massive forest clearance next to Lower Seletar Reservoir

We would like to make the following notes:

Forest Clearance at Lower Seletar Reservoir

1. The area size of forest cleared is about 40 ha up to Jan 2021.

2. NSS wasn’t informed nor consulted with regard to this big project.

3. Whatever records we have of the wildlife within that officially-prohibited forest are from its periphery and given the large size of the forest there, things look promising — even if we just look only at the birdlife.

4. A White-bellied Sea Eagle is regularly seen flying to and from the forest there to the Sungei Seletar Estuary and the Straits of Johor.

It is obviously using the Albizia grove within the forest area for roosting or probably for nesting. There are other possibilities of roosting or nesting for other eagles - like the Changeable Hawk and the Grey-headed Fish eagle in that sort of secondary forest.

5. Even if there is an EIA being done, it was not made public and the Nature Society is not apprised of this before the event which is the standard procedure for other governmental organisations like the PUB, LTA and HDB - or even after the development was carried out.

6. From the view through satellite map, this extensive clearance of the forest is rather not ecologically-oriented for there is hardly any allowance to say the least for a wildlife corridor along the shoreline of the Lower Seletar Reservoir to forge a connectivity between Springleaf Park and the Nature Reserve to the west and Khatib Bongsu Nature Park and the general Sungei Seletar Estuary area along the eastern coast.

7. This is especially relevant or pertinent for the dispersal or movement of the globally critically endangered Straw-headed Bulbul, which is regularly recorded at Khatib Bongsu along the eastern coast and the Springleaf area inland to the west.

The clearance of the forest, as indicated on the map attached, will constraint adversely this allowance for a green corridor for wildlife in general, which should be a cardinal principle for the national objective of sustainability.

8. An ecologically-oriented approach to such a large project where an extensive patch of secondary forest or woodland is going to be wiped out calls for discussion and consultation across a broad spectrum of stakeholders apart from just the professional consultant.

9. We have communicated to NParks on this project.

Leong Kwok Peng

Conservation Committee