Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Reopening

It was reported in the news recently that The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) reopened after two years of restoration work and upgrades. The reserve was closed due to some of its trails being deemed unsafe due to increasing usage of them by the public. The result? Most of these trails ended up being widened and even led to landslides.

In here we can clearly see a situation where proper governance of such a complex eco-system is required due to an increased human presence. Based on the DPSIR framework, we can see that the pressure that the increased amount of visitors have naturally led to a change in the state of the environment with associated negative effects such as landslides and overly large trails. A change in state that is likely to be detrimental would no doubt provoke a response from the governing body.

NParks basically closed the reserve in 2014 to restore the original trails and at the same time building new facilities to minimise the impact of the increasing visitor count. For example, a raised boardwalk was built in several sections to mitigate trampling. Railings were also built along the trails to encourage visitors to stick to them instead of going off into the surrounding forest.

We can see that the authorities have responded by closing the reserve in an effort to restore it to its original condition. However, simply restoring the park to its original condition is insufficient as the park’s visitor count in 2014 was already unsustainable. Thus there is a need to either limit the visitors to the reserve or to change the reserve to better withstand the increased visitor numbers. NParks has clearly taken the second approach by installing facilities meant to cushion the impact of increased visitors. Whilst this does allow more visitors to come in, there is a trade-off as the new facilities such as the board walk and railings take away from the original flavour of the reserve; that of nature in its raw state. But these changes seem largely accepted by visitors thus they may not detract that much from the overall experience.

There are also plans to create a “Friends of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve” community which hopes to include the nature community, residents and recreational users of the park. The purpose of the group seems to be focused on balancing the education, research and recreational needs of users with the need to conserve the nature reserve.

I felt that this approach was notable because it’s a new response to the issue of visitorship. Previously, the focus was on NParks when it came to conserving the reserve. But it seems that the responsibility of preserving the park is to be shared with the users more than before with Minister Lawrence Wong encouraging Singaporeans to visit and at the same time acting as “custodians and stewards….for future generations to enjoy.” This approach seems to be the norm across NParks governed ecosystems as we saw in my previous posts. There has been an increasing trend of stakeholder integration into the overall governance of ecosystems which has been noted to aid in the overall conservation effort as discussed in an earlier post.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/bukit-timah-nature-reserve-reopens-after-2-years-of-restoration/3226578.html