The green hills of Singapore

SINGAPORE – If you want to take a break from crowded cities, come to Singapore. Well, it depends. The common impression of this island nation is a modern city – clean, efficient, with shops of every conceivable brand in Orchard Road – far from nature.

On this trip, I’m glad to discover this is not true after all. It may have modern conveniences, but the Singaporeans made spaces for preserving nature. That’s where I am now, to take a break in the Bukit Timah area.

Bukit Timah is the highest point in Singapore. It  is described the oldest primary rainforest.

My grandchildren had written me that they see monkeys on their way to school. I did not believe them until I saw for myself the monkeys scampering from the trees undisturbed. The beauty of Bukit Timah  is about how Singaporeans have preserved the nature and heritage of their oldest primary rainforest. The tallest hill in in this rain forest is 163 meters high.

Although it is in Singapore the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is an ASEAN Heritage Park, and home to 40 oercent of the island nation’s flora and fauna. Visitors to Singapore who know of this place come here to explore nature.

Visitors come here to walk without disturbing the order at the nature reserve. I have not done that myself but I can look at the windows of my bedroom and see the beauty of the preserved towering trees. Why can’t we have something like this in Manila?  For one, Singapore is not visited by horrific typhoons. For another we have not appreciated what it means to preserve nature.

The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is a mere 12 km from the city center. We must find an equivalent in the Philippines where the beauty of the many little islands can be appreciated. As Art Valdez who revived the balangay ( the Filipino invented boat of ancient times) says you haven’t seen the beauty of the Philippines until you take a river boat tour around the islands.

It takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour to reach the summit of Bukit Timah at a leisurely pace. It will take you another 30 minutes to reach the foot of the hill from the summit.

Despite its small size, it is considered one of the most productive pieces of nature. Alfred Russel Wallace also thought highly of the place. Together with the neighbouring Central Catchment Nature Reserve, it houses over 840 species of flowering plants and over 500 species of fauna. Today, it is one of the largest patches of primary rainforest left in Singapore. The forest reserve was formally declared an ASEAN Heritage Park on 18 October 2011.

The name Bukit Timah is borrowed from the tallest hill found in the area of the same name, which is also the tallest geographical location in all of Singapore. Bukit means hill in the Malay language, while Timah means tin. The hill served as a granite quarry for many years, but since the mid-1900s, all operations have been abandoned and converted into recreational areas and even filming locations. Those who are against all forms of mining should note – this was a former mine!

In 1882, Nathaniel Cantley, then superintendent of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, was commissioned by the Government of the Straits Settlements to prepare a report on the forests of the settlements. On Cantley’s recommendation, several forest reserves were created on Singapore island over the next few years. Bukit Timah was one of the first forest reserves established in 1883.

The forest reserves were depleted under economic pressures for development. However, three areas, including the Bukit Timah Reserve, were retained for the protection of flora and fauna under the management of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

In 1951, further protection of the reserves were provided by the enactment of a Nature Reserves Ordinance and the establishment of a Nature Reserves Board for the administration of the reserves, now designated as nature reserves, which total some 28 square kilometers in area.

Today, the nature reserves are set aside for the propagation, protection and preservation of the indigenous flora and fauna of Singapore under the National Parks Act and are managed by the National Parks Board.

The reserve, along with the adjacent Central Catchment Nature Reserve, has been identified by BirdLife International as the Central Forest Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations of vulnerable straw-headed bulbuls and brown-chested jungle flycatchers.

The crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), a species of monkey, is common in the reserve. These must have been the monkeys my children were writing about. They also enter the area surrounding the park and are common enough that there are concerns that interactions with people will alter their behavior. Feeding the monkeys is prohibited, and visitors are urged to avoid staring at, baring teeth at or otherwise disturbing or threatening the monkeys.

Monkeys are not the only mammals in the park. Other mammals include the Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica), Malayan colugo (Galeopterus variegatus), plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) and slender squirrel (Sundasciurus tenuis).The colugos, which are generally nocturnal, can sometimes be seen clinging to trees during the day. Bukit Timah is the only place in Singapore where the red-cheeked flying squirrel (Hylopetes spadiceus) is found.(Sourced from Wikipedia)

My grandchildren tell me that they have also seen a wild boar roaming the streets here. As we move forward to develop our country I hope that we can take examples like this and provide places people can still enjoy nature.