By Jun Yuan Yong
SINGAPORE, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Plans to clear part of Singapore's dwindling secondary forests for high-density housing have sparked a rare public backlash in the city-state, prompting the government to adjust the proposal as it tries to boost housing capacity.
Singapore, roughly the size of New York City, said in July it was looking to clear two-thirds of the 23-hectare (57-acre) Maju Forest, an expanse of green in the island's west, to build more public housing.
The announcement triggered an outcry.
More than 49,000 people signed two petitions, urging the government to build on brownfield land, such as golf courses and former commercial and institutional sites, and redevelop older public housing estates at higher densities. More than 700 residents signed a letter to their member of parliament urging Maju Forest to be saved. On Sunday, about 2,000 people joined a rally to show their support for nature and biodiversity, organisers said.
"Stop spending the land (Singapore) can never get back," read one of the petitions.
Last Friday, after closing a public feedback channel on the proposal, the government announced it would make adjustments to retain more greenery than originally planned, but did not provide details.
In a response to a Reuters request for further comments on the plan, the Ministry of National Development shared an August 14 video of Alvin Tan, a junior minister. "We will work out exactly how much more (greenery), but we'll have to accept that this means we can build fewer homes," Tan said in the video.
Like densely populated cities from Hong Kong to London and Sydney, Singapore is grappling with how to meet the housing needs of its population as property prices soar, but, as an island of 744 square kilometres, it has no hinterland where it can expand.
As of 2020, 14% of land in Singapore was used for housing, while 9.3% was parks and nature reserves, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Singapore's population hit a record 6.11 million people as of June last year. It is projected to range from 6.5 million to 6.9 million by 2030.
'CONFLICTING MESSAGES'
Maju Forest was once home to a rubber plantation and fruit orchards. Later it was the site of a railway line carrying goods and heavy materials from a nearby shipyard to another station.
But since the train service ended in 1992, the jungle has reclaimed the land and trees have grown and matured, leaving a scenic hiking spot with abandoned rail tracks and a tunnel.
A government commissioned environmental study shows the forest is home to 113 animal species. Among them are the critically endangered straw-headed bulbul — a bird that numbers just 600 to 1,700 worldwide, one-third of them in Singapore — and the Sunda pangolin.
Singapore is expected to clear 7,331 hectares of secondary forests for development, with the future loss of secondary forests 1.2 times the size of all parks and nature reserves in the city-state, according to estimates based on the government's urban plans in a 2023 paper published in science journal MDPI.
Singapore has styled itself as a garden city since 1967, with the city-state's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and political figures regularly planting trees.
Nature Society Singapore President Leong Kwok Peng said authorities gave conflicting messages: "They wanted to plant a million trees and yet at the same time they're removing hundreds and thousands of trees in wild areas." The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Rachel Oh, a conservation researcher at the National University of Singapore, said mature forests were able to reduce heat stress at a time when climate change was driving temperatures higher.
"Not all green spaces are equal," she said.
"Mature forests are structurally complex, they are taller, they are bigger, and that's something that a newly planted park could become in maybe 40 to 50 years ... So then when we think about the removal of forests, to me, it's also removal of public health infrastructures."
Nearly 80% of Singaporeans live in government-built flats.
"The overall demand for public housing remains strong ... Not all our housing needs can be met by developing brownfield sites alone," the housing board website said of the site.
(Reporting by Jun Yuan Yong; Writing by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Josh Smith and Kate Mayberry)
