SINGAPORE – A forthcoming nature park at the redeveloped Bukit Timah Turf City estate will conserve up to 40 hectares of forest, safeguard globally-threatened wildlife and rare plant species, and link two forest fragments via a 400-metre green corridor. The announcement was made by the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) following an environmental impact study conducted by AECOM between 2021 and 2024.
The park will connect the forest patches of Bukit Tinggi (a smaller area adjacent to the Swiss Club site) and Eng Neo Avenue Forest (a larger forested patch) via a lush corridor designed to enable wildlife movement between the two zones. This forms part of the city-state’s ninth nature park that borders the green lungs of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and Bukit Timah nature reserves. “It will serve as a buffer to protect the Central Catchment Nature Reserve … while providing more opportunities for nature-based recreation,” said Chee Hong Tat, Minister for National Development.
The environmental impact study highlighted that the area supports 25 fauna species of conservation significance and 177 plant species of conservation importance. Among the animals recorded are the critically endangered Sunda pangolin, the straw-headed bulbul songbird, and the nationally threatened lesser bamboo bat. On the flora side, the forest patch at Bukit Tinggi was described as “lighting up like a Christmas tree” by wildlife advocates, owing to its extraordinary diversity, including nearly 100 nationally-threatened plants and Singapore’s only native vanilla species, Vanilla griffithii.
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Under the plan, about 80 percent of the park area will remain as green space, with minimal built infrastructure—trails, boardwalks and nature-play features will be added so that visitors can enjoy the environment without compromising habitats. NParks and URA are conducting feasibility studies to identify existing underground utilities, water mains, telecoms lines and other services in the area to avoid disturbance.
While the conservation outcome has been welcomed by nature advocates, some expressed concern about connectivity across the nearby Pan‑Island Expressway (PIE). Roadkill of snakes and small mammals has been documented near Eng Neo Avenue, and several groups hope for a dedicated wildlife crossing such as a “green bridge” to restore movement between the restored park and the primary forest. “Maintaining connectivity … is a welcome move, but it is pointless if it just leads to a dead end, in this case, the expressway,” remarked Mr Muhammad Nasry Abdul Nasir of the Nature Society (Singapore).
The new nature park is being developed in parallel with the broader Turf City estate, which will eventually feature 15,000 to 20,000 homes and a future MRT station on the Cross Island Line. By setting aside a sizeable green corridor and high-value habitat, Singapore aims to balance urban development and biodiversity conservation within a highly constrained land-scarce context.
