**5. BTNR in the eyes of the visitors: Perceptions and views of stakeholders**

As the forest became increasingly popular to the local visitors, it became increasingly clear that the views, perspectives of the visitors drive the way this forest is managed. With initiatives from the National Parks Board which manages the forest, the forest has gone through some major facelift in terms of facilities aimed at attracting visitors and it sees large numbers of visitors, mostly locals from the neighbourhood and organized groups from schools and other organizations. It also provides opportunities for local schools, universities and other research bodies to conduct forest ecology related research. The forest has therefore moved from an unknown forest to one that provides services such as recreation, education, and research opportunities.

Sustainability of an Urban Forest: Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore 157

forest resources to blend with the environment. But such efforts are mostly ad-hoc and not

Fig. 12. Initiatives taken by the forest management in response to changing usage of the

However, as surveys suggest, rugged trails still seem to be the best attraction of this forest and 89% of the visitors go directly to the trails. New trails of all grades and gradients have been laid out through the forest to cater to the growing demand. One such example is the Kampong Trail which actually links BTNR to the next forest in the Central Water Catchment, the MacRitchie forest. Currently there are various networks of trails through varying gradients of the forest, running through small streams, caves, rock outcrops, dense vegetated slopes and deserted old hutments, giving the much desired rustic and wild

With annual figures going as high as 402621 persons, the 10.6km walking trails alone would see a staggering 1103 visitors per day. This figure is not final as entrees from the six unguarded entrances are not included in this data. If the IUCN guidelines of 10 persons per hectare per day are followed, the 164 ha area of BTNR should be able to support a visitor figure of 1640 per day (World Tourism Organization, 1999). But the 75 ha closed forested area of BTNR that is actually visited by people can only support an optimum visitor number

forest: (a) Rest Huts, (b) Education Centre, (c), (d), and (e) Trail management

(c) (d) (e)

environment that urban dwellers crave for during their leisure times.

done in a regular planned manner.

(a) (b)

To understand how this new involvement of the people and the continuous efforts to provide various services affects people's perception of the forest, surveys were conducted with 284 visitors in 2010. Table 4 gives a summary of the views received from the visitors about several aspects related to the forest.


Table 4. Views and perceptions of visitors to BTNR (n=284)

The survey reveals the opinions of an urban population, whose outdoor pursuits do not allow any room for consideration for Nature conservation. Although a fair number of people mentioned that they value coming to the forest as it brings them closer to Nature, they do not see the urgent need to ensure that this piece of forest is conserved for what it is. Most people are comfortable to use it as a Nature Park that gives them a respite from urban stresses and yet they do value it as a piece of Nature.
