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Kolette Lim

Singaporean Jo Teoh has spent over three decades waking up to birdsong, the rustle of leaves as macaques jump through trees, and the lingering smell of damp earth.
Much of her time living in the western estate of Sunset Way revolves around the adjacent forest, where she and her family watch hornbills glide over the canopy.
“The neighbourhood lives with the forest,” said the media producer, 68. “It has shaped the character of our home and community.”
But the chirps and faint crickets may soon become a lived memory. On July 10, Singapore’s Housing Development Board (HDB) announced plans to clear about 15 of 23 hectares (56.8 acres) of Maju forest for public housing in the coming years.
Residents like Teoh have since called for greater transparency in the planning process. “Seeing a place so rich in life reduced to a coloured polygon on a planning map was devastating,” she said. “It felt like watching a living neighbour transformed into a development parcel.”

Educator Anna Ng chose to build a home at Clementi’s Sunset Way some two decades ago to allow her children to grow up alongside nature in a city state filled with skyscrapers. “When the kids were young they could just ride their bikes around the estate and even wander into the forest,” she said.
The project would affect more than biodiversity, she lamented. “[It will] inadvertently lead to changes in traffic, people, the quality of air and unquantifiable things like our psychological well-being.”
While noting that dialogue sessions were being held, Ng questioned if it was “heavy-handed” to hold talks only after announcing the redevelopment plans.
For outdoor lover Derrick Lo, the announcement signalled one fewer venue for his love of organising hiking trips across Singapore.
Lo, 59, said visits to Maju forest helped many tide through the Covid-19 pandemic when indoor spaces were banned. “Too many forests have already been sacrificed for housing,” he said. “Once these habitats are cleared, they cannot be brought back.”
About 20 per cent of Singapore, which is 745 sq km (288 square miles) in size, is covered by forests, but this figure has been falling over the years. According to local media, more than 90 per cent of its original primary rainforests, mangroves and freshwater swamps have been lost to development over the past two centuries.
A petition to stop the Maju plan has collected over 33,500 signatures as of Friday.

‘False binary’?
The Sunset Way redevelopment project aimed to provide more housing options for Singaporeans, including young families who wished to live near their parents, HDB said in its announcement, noting that demand for homes remained strong.
The greenfield site had largely been zoned for residential use since Singapore’s Master Plan 1980.
The latest move was made public after the conclusion of an environmental study assessing the development’s impact. The study, commissioned by the National Parks Board and published on July 10, recorded 286 flora species and 113 animal species, including endangered ones such as the sunda pangolin and the straw-headed bulbul.
To provide refuge for wildlife and facilitate fauna movement, an eight-hectare plot would be retained, HDB said, adding that various stakeholders such as nature groups were engaged throughout the planning process.
But to many, the plot is nowhere near enough. Environmental groups and activists have called for a pause on the clearance and suggested prioritising brownfield sites such as expiring golf courses and ageing industrial land for housing.
“The narrative framing of forest versus housing has a false binary,” said Julie Tang, a climate organiser at green group SG Climate Rally. “I think a lot of Singaporeans agree that a good and full life is one we get to live in harmony with the flora and fauna around us.”

Speaking to local media a week after the announcement, HDB chief town planner Chong Fook Loong said the first priority was brownfield sites, but those were few and far between in the Clementi area.
He said there was a “great need” for more housing supply, referring to a recent build-to-order launch in Clementi that was oversubscribed four times.
While prioritising brownfield sites would reduce pressure on natural ecosystems, earmarking such places could be challenging as they might not be suitable or readily available, said Tan-Soo Jie-Sheng, director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
“Some remain under lease, others continue to support important industrial or institutional functions, while some require substantial remediation and infrastructure upgrades before they can be redeveloped,” he said.
“Ultimately, the key question is not just whether other brownfield sites exist, but whether they can deliver comparable housing outcomes within similar cost and time constraints while achieving the same planning objectives like population rejuvenation.”
Hoping for a U-turn
HDB said plans were not yet finalised and invited the public to share their feedback following the announcement.
In response to queries, HDB said it had received 2,712 responses regarding the Sunset Way site as of Tuesday.
“All feedback received will be reviewed alongside the findings of the environmental study, as well as other planning considerations, before agencies finalise the detailed development plans for the site,” it said.
Several lawmakers have said they will raise the matter at the next parliament session, which starts next Tuesday.

Residents’ concerns had been relayed to HDB, said People’s Action Party MP Sim Ann on Friday, who added that she believed the views would be “considered thoroughly and seriously” and “help shape the eventual outcome”.
Another housing redevelopment project at Gillman Barracks, an art and lifestyle compound which formerly housed British Army regiments, has also incited environmental concerns. A petition campaigning against that project, which was announced simultaneously with Sunset Way, has received over 12,600 signatures as of Friday.
Tang said she remained “cautiously optimistic”, noting that the government had on rare occasions changed course after public pleas.
“The organic energy on the ground is really very strong,” she said. “It’s not manufactured, it’s a real response from the people of Singapore saying that we feel quite strongly that we shouldn’t go ahead.”
Following similar public outcry, Singapore in 2021 revised its plans to clear Dover Forest, retaining most of the greenery and developing about a third of its 33 hectares for housing.
Sociologist Tan Ern Ser noted that Singapore was increasingly becoming a post-materialist society which valued environmental protection and quality of life. “We now also have a more critical citizenry prepared to voice environmental concerns,” he said.
He believed the government would revise the plan as it recognised that redevelopment was “people-centric” and meant to enhance residents’ quality of life.
“The political leadership too prioritises environmental protection, and would initiate conducting environmental impact assessment as part of its redevelopment plans,” said Tan, who is also an adjunct principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. “After all, the government’s tagline is that Singapore is a city in nature.”

While the Dover Forest project was an “important precedent”, Tan-Soo said the public response was more likely to influence the project’s implementation instead of halting it altogether.
He recalled the construction project for the Cross-Island train line, which included plans to build a tunnel under a nature reserve which was Singapore’s largest patch of primary rainforest. Environmental groups and activists proposed an alternative route that skirted the reserve and ran below private homes.
Singapore retained its original plan, saying it would result in a shorter travel time than the alternative and would be more environmentally friendly in the long run due to “lower energy consumption”.
Teoh and the residents of Sunset Way are determined to fight down to the wire.
“The tragedy is not simply that we may lose a forest,” said Teoh, who has since started a social media page to spark discussions on balancing development and nature.
“No amount of tree planting can recreate decades of ecological complexity within our lifetime. An everyday relationship between people and the living world built over generations may disappear with it.”
Additional reporting by Jean Iau


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Nature lovers say the project to clear 15 hectares of Maju forest for housing will affect more than biodiversity, call for more transparency


Nature lovers say the project to clear 15 hectares of Maju forest for housing will affect more than biodiversity, call for more transparency.


Environment

Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

‘A living neighbour’: Singapore residents fight to save Maju forest as clearance looms

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Nature lovers say the project to clear 15 hectares of Maju forest for housing will affect more than biodiversity, call for more transparency

Nature lovers say the project to clear 15 hectares of Maju forest for housing will affect more than biodiversity, call for more transparency