[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/green-groups-and-citizens-share-their-thoughts-on-the-dover-forest-verdict\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/green-groups-and-citizens-share-their-thoughts-on-the-dover-forest-verdict\/","headline":"Green groups and citizens share their thoughts on the Dover forest verdict","name":"Green groups and citizens share their thoughts on the Dover forest verdict","description":"Following the public outcry in January 2021 over Dover forest being cleared for housing development, revised plans were announced last month that the western half would be kept for conservation for at least the next decade.\u00a0 The area marks a place of substantial value for both conservationists and Dover residents alike.\u00a0 Said nature guide Inez [&hellip;]","datePublished":"2021-08-28","dateModified":"2022-04-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/#Person","name":"Rachel Teng","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/","identifier":367,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1630406375883_Green_groups_and_citizens_share_their_thoughts_on_the_Dover_forest_verdict_Sydney_Cheong_281280X626px29.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1630406375883_Green_groups_and_citizens_share_their_thoughts_on_the_Dover_forest_verdict_Sydney_Cheong_281280X626px29.jpg","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/green-groups-and-citizens-share-their-thoughts-on-the-dover-forest-verdict\/","commentCount":"681","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/green-groups-and-citizens-share-their-thoughts-on-the-dover-forest-verdict\/#Comment1","dateCreated":"2026-09-08 01:59:43","description":"cost of cheap propecia prices [url=https:\/\/hairguardrx.com\/#]HairGuardRx[\/url] :: cost of cheap propecia","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Robertcroge","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/green-groups-and-citizens-share-their-thoughts-on-the-dover-forest-verdict\/#Comment2","dateCreated":"2026-09-08 00:38:24","description":"propecia for sale: <a href=\"https:\/\/hairguardrx.shop\/#\" rel=\"nofollow ugc\">buy propecia no prescription<\/a> - 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The other day we saw a baby reticulated python there, and a lot of my friends have been sighting a lot more birds.\u201d\u00a0These include unique sightings such as the grey-headed fish eagle and buffy fish owl.\u00a0\u201cWhen the results came out, I had mixed emotions. One of the headlines said that it\u2019s a \u2018win for all\u2019 but I have to disagree,\u201d said Jimmy Tan, a concerned citizen who has voiced his reservations to HDB both privately and publicly on his blog.This time around, the government has made significant strides to increase the transparency of its plans, addressing public concerns on why vacant brownfield sites have not first been considered for development. However, some who were invited for the consultation said they felt like they were only there to \u201ccheck the box on public engagement\u201d.\u201cThe revised plan was released on 30 July, and the day before, I actually went for a closed door session with HDB and NParks. They said it was meant for people who wrote in their feedback to \u2018gain closure\u2019 on the matter,\u201d said Chua Chin Tat, a Dover resident and nature enthusiast who has also been exceedingly vocal on the matter. \u201cThe next day, it was all over the news, so it seemed as if they\u2019d already made their decision and called us in only at the last minute.\u201d\u00a0While the main reason cited for development was the high demand for public housing in the Ulu Pandan estate, Mr Chua remained sceptical due to the lack of statistics to support this claim. \u201cMaybe some numbers will give us a better perspective on why there is such strong demand specifically in Ulu Pandan.\u201d\u00a0Mr Chua, who has visited Dover Forest upwards of 50 times this year alone, also finds the Environmental Baseline Report conducted by the Housing Development Board (HDB) to be reductive. \u201cBecause of the short time the surveyors spend in there, they can\u2019t possibly catalogue everything. Someone who has really worked the ground would really know that the forest is alive and there\u2019s always something new to see.\u201d\u00a0Nature groups are happy with the outcome\u00a0Conversely, the general sentiment among green groups is more positive, due to the highly degraded state of Dover forest \u2013 ecologically speaking.\u00a0\u201cMost of these sightings, such as a riverine species, were in the Western part of Dover forest. So they\u2019re definitely conserving the right portion,\u201d said nature guide and ecologist Elliott James Ong.\u00a0\u201cIn Dover, there are many non-native trees such as the Albizia or rubber which are left over from Singapore\u2019s agricultural era, and our native trees have never regrown since,\u201d said Ho Xiang Tian, co-founder of green group LepakinSG. \u201cMany members of the public who may not have an in-depth knowledge of ecology may find it hard to understand that there isn\u2019t that much left to conserve anymore.\u201d\u00a0He also emphasised that large amounts of human intervention and management would be required for Dover forest to be restored. \u201cThe way things stand, even given a hundred years, it will probably not revert back to a primary [pristine] rainforest, unless active steps are taken to weed out invasive species and replant native ones instead.\u201d\u00a0Green groups urge that battles have to be picked and compromises have to be made, since conserving every single patch of forest would not add much value to Singapore\u2019s biodiversity either.\u00a0\u201cWe cannot have this mindset that we\u2019re going to be able to save every single forest, but instead we have to do assessments and prioritise which are the ones that we can give up,\u201d said Mr Ong.\u00a0What\u2019s in a name and place?Green groups also highlight that the success in rallying for public support lies in Dover forest\u2019s location, as well as the fact that it had a name.\u00a0\u201cI think it was lucky that Dover was right smack in the middle of a residential area, so people feel connected to it,\u201d said Sarah Lin, social media manager for LepakinSG. \u201cWe\u2019ve also gotten quite a bit of traction from the Coney Island development plans because people are more familiar with the space, but a lot of other unnamed, and thus unknown spaces get less protection, though they might be more biodiverse.\u201d\u00a0Mr Ong emphasised that a reactionary measure to public outcry is not the optimal model in deciding which green spaces the nation should preserve. \u201cIdeally, what we want is a methodical procedure with guidelines in place, ensuring proper Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) to be done, because a lot of important forests will not have the same amount of public support.\u201d\u00a0This time, however, the public backlash and media spotlights have been critical to the revision of the way in which EIAs were conducted. \u201cPreviously, NParks only looked at plant diversity when analysing which areas are more biodiverse,\u201d said Mr Ho. \u201cThis is an internationally accepted way of deciding whether a space is worth protecting at all, but now NParks has gone the extra mile, taking considerations like connectivity into account as well.\u201d\u00a0It had also allowed citizens more time to process the plans, given them more time to voice their concerns, and be included in the decision making process. \u201cIf we hadn\u2019t done what we did, I\u2019m not so sure if we would have gotten the attention of the residents in the area,\u201d said Karl Png, director of the Singapore Youth Voices for Biodiversity (SYVB). \u201cIt could have been just another closed-door meeting with the governments and developers, but we got people to care about biodiversity and show that they want a City in Nature.\u201dApart from ecological quantifiers, the recreational and sentimental values of Dover forest are externalities that have, rather unprecedentedly, played a big part in altering the final verdict.\u00a0\u201cOne day in primary school, I got scolded very badly. That evening, I remember coming home and seeing Dover forest being covered in clouds,\u201d Mr Png, who is also a resident of Dover, shared. \u201cIt is a mystical feeling that cools you down and washes your emotions away. You don\u2019t really see that sort of view often in Singapore, and it makes your day just a little bit better.\u201d\u201cI think the government recognises now that they will not be able to develop Clementi forest anytime soon, because so many people have started using the area since Covid-19,\u201d added Ms Alsagoff.\u00a0Citizen advocacy therefore helps to even out the power balance, which is currently skewed towards the government. \u201cIt\u2019s a double-edged sword, and people who start the outcry need to do so informedly,\u201d said Ms Lin.\u00a0Noteworthy governmental efforts\u00a0Perhaps a lesser-known fact is that several key green spaces have been re-zoned for conservation, even without public outcry.\u00a0Areas like Windsor and Chestnut were previously zoned as residential areas but are now nature parks. \u201cNParks recognised that these are critical buffer areas that prevent moisture from being drawn out of the Central Catchment area,\u201d said Mr Ho. \u201cThey also serve as alternative green spaces for people to enjoy, easing the effects of human disturbance on our primary forests.\u201d\u201cI think it\u2019s good to encourage the government. If they have compromised such a significant part of the forest and we still say they\u2019re doing a bad job, then they\u2019ll have very little incentive for them to listen to us in future,\u201d said Mr Ong.\u00a0\u201cNature groups should also step out to comment on the final outcome, to help tie up loose ends for the public,\u201d added Ms Lin.\u00a0Moving forward, nature groups like LepakinSG and SYVB work hard to make the Urban Redevelopment Authority\u2019s (URA\u2019s) development plans more digestible for the public. \u201cInstead of finding out about forest clearings from the BTO launch announcements, we want people to have an early understanding, and react in advance,\u201d said Ms Lin.\u00a0For more information on our green spaces and their upcoming development plans, check out LepakinSG\u2019s Our Wild Spaces resource.\u00a0Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia&#8217;s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Green groups and citizens share their thoughts on the Dover forest verdict","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/green-groups-and-citizens-share-their-thoughts-on-the-dover-forest-verdict\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]