Mandai: Relocate site? Few back Nature Society option

Planned Nature-Themed Attraction in Mandai
Some nature lovers not convinced that development will harm area's ecology
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 14 Dec 07;

THE Nature Society's alternative plan to re-locate a planned nature attraction to Yio Chu Kang has not drawn widespread support here.

At the centre of the debate is the question of whether the 30ha site suggested by the Singapore Tourism Board for the new Mandai attraction is that critical to the preservation of animal life in the area, as the Nature Society says.

The Society says that the plot - about three times the size of the VivoCity megamall - is a vital 'buffer zone' for animals such as the leopard cat to move from one part of the reserve to another.

Instead, it wants the development to move to a site in Yio Chu Kang Road, near Lower Seletar Reservoir. The area has a couple of commercial vegetable farms.

But where some nature lovers such as volunteer nature guide Ben Lee, 45, rallied around the Nature Society's call to stop development in Mandai, other environmental watchers like head of Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research Peter Ng are not as convinced.

Professor Ng pointed out that the Mandai site - which is not in any nature reserve - is an abandoned durian and rambutan plantation.

Disputing what the Nature Society says of the sites's ecological importance, he said: 'The original forest had long been chopped down.'

Neither is Professor Leo Tan, who won this year's President's Award for the Environment, convinced that the nature attraction should move to Yio Chu Kang. He said that it was too premature to reject the Mandai plans without learning more about the developers' intentions.

'We should not object for the sake of objecting. If the development really harms the environment, the whole nation will rally around it,' he said. 'Look at what happened with Chek Jawa.'

Plus, there is the issue of commercial viability. A project in Mandai, surrounded by two world-class attractions - the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari - would be a good draw for visitors.

Done properly, such a project like that can be immensely successful, said Mr Francis Phun, who is the Association of Singapore Attractions chairman. He cited Australia's Blue Mountains in New South Wales as a perfect example of how nature and tourist attractions can co-exist.

But if the attraction went to Yio Chu Kang Road - its commercial viability will be questionable.

The Mandai plan is to build on the existing appeal of the area with attractions such as the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. Moving it elsewhere may not give the new attraction the 'critical mass' it needs to survive, he added.

However Ms Ng Lee Li, a section head for the Tourism Academy @ Sentosa, was more willing to give the Yio Chu Kang site more merit.

It could work in Yio Chu Kang and provide the node for visitors keen to explore the area's farms; and it could become a different sort of retreat for such visitors.

But this is provided that the developer pumps money into the surrounding sites, and works with the farms to make them visitor-friendly and an attraction. 'It's the plans for the type of attraction that count,' she said.

The Singapore Tourism Board, which is spearheading the project, has said that it would 'consider' the Nature Society's proposal.

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