MAY 05, 2002
 

THE seating arrangement at last Monday's press briefing was telling.

Urban Redevelopment Authority chief planner Koh-Lim Wen Gin, acting as moderator, sat in the middle.

Way down her extreme left was Nature Society of Singapore president Dr Geh Min, while officials of the National Service Resort and Country Club and their resource people bunched at the other end.

The parties were cordial but the body language, timely interjections, quiet whispers and choice of words belied the smiles at the lunch-time meeting.

This divide is unnecessary, for golfers and greenies can co-exist. But there must be more truth and goodwill, less public posturing and sympathy seeking

I learned a lot from that meeting. Let me recap.

Following RECORD III's recommendation, the Government leased 72ha of land between Neo Tiew Road and Kranji Reservoir to the NSRCC. The club voluntarily returned 8ha to preserve the marshland there.

The Nature Society was not satisfied, its conservation committee wanting the developers to move the course 200m inland from the reservoir's waterline.

There was no way NSRCC could forgo about one-third of the site and still carry out its construction. But Dr Geh Min clarified that her people were not asking for the course development to be abandoned, that asking for the 200m move was just an 'ideal'.

NSRCC then engaged two associate professors from the National University of Singapore to study the eco-system.

The findings of Drs Navjot Sodhi and Hugh Tan from the Department of Biological Sciences are interesting:

• The current vegetation is not pristine and comprises mainly secondary re-growth.
   
• The plants there are of lower quality compared to those at the Nature Reserves.
    
• Most of the 141 species of birds found there are common in Singapore.
    
• None of the 28 species of threatened reptiles in Singapore is found there.
    
• The only two mammals found there - house rat and plaintain squirrel - are common in Singapore.

Concluded the professors: 'Golf course not built at the expense of Singapore's wilderness'.

Nevertheless, NSRCC - which has won numerous awards for conservation efforts at its original East Coast club - has undertaken not only to preserve as much of the marshland as possible but also to make the new course a wildlife sanctuary.

Among the steps it would take are:

• Retaining core marshland along the reservoir and next to the BBC station.
   
• Retaining key plants.
   
• Replanting native plants to create 'migration connectors' and new habitats for wildlife.
   
• Introduce new ponds, waterbodies and marshes.

At the Botanic Gardens, more than 10 trees are lost every year to lightning.

NSRCC has therefore undertaken to protect the valuable trees at its site with lightning arrestors.

Dr Geh Min said she accepted the findings of the two professors and, interestingly, added that her society did not rule out leasing land from the Government for ecological projects. This is done in other countries.

Yes, golf clubs have been paying for land leases at market prices since 1990.

But the Nature Society should not follow suit, far better, and cheaper, for it to learn to co-exist with golf.

The egrets, kingfishers and marsh sandpipers of Raffles CC or the herons and brahminy kite of NSRCC - if they could talk - would urge the same.

As would the iguanas and monitor lizards of Laguna National GCC.
 

Copyright © 2002 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.