SAVE MACRITCHIE RAINFOREST FROM DESTRUCTION, STOP LTA BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

Dear All Singapore Stuff,

Please help to share this! The fate of the MacRitchie Rainforest lies on a delicate balance. Once the Cross Island MRT Line (CRL) commences construction, it will inevitably affect the lives of flora and fauna that depend on the forest for survival.

Help to conserve that balance by supporting the re-routing of the CRL at http://tinyurl.com/lta-crl

Here's the text for the petition:

SAVE SINGAPORE´S FOREST RESERVES; OUR NATURAL HERITAGE

Appeal to Land Transport Authority (LTA) Singapore, to re-route proposed Cross Island MRT Line away from our nature reserves

We, the undersigned, note with deep sadness and disbelief that a Cross Island MRT Line is depicted to run beneath the Central Catchment Area, requiring soil investigations in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve due to begin soon. Our utmost concern is that works connected with this development will ruin our most precious natural resource—our central rainforest.

Our rainforest is our natural heritage, unique to us and no other, serving us in more ways than we may know. No MRT line, whether above or underground should pass through it.

With the possible construction of bore holes every 15 to 20m along the proposed line for soil studies and the running of access roads to the bore holes, the rainforest habitat of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve could be massively and irreversibly damaged.

Even at its best, the Cross Island Line development, as currently proposed, will ultimately disconnect the primary forest habitats of the MacRitchie Forest area from those of the rest of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Fragmentation of forest areas leads to forest degradation and loss of native wildlife.

Today, the MacRitchie Forest comprises a rich tract of undisturbed primary and mature secondary forest with a network of small, acidic, crystal-clear forest streams supporting unique flora and fauna adapted to living in such special habitats. The Forest Walking Catfish, Black-spotted Sticky Frog, Gold-ringed Cat Snake and Spiny Terrapin have made this part of the forest their home, as have the Leopard Cat, Sunda Pangolin, Malayan Colugo and Horsfield’s Flying Squirrel, among others.

Any development in this forest will undoubtedly lead to siltation of our forest streams. This will in turn destroy unique micro-habitats created by forest streams, killing off native forest frogs, freshwater turtles, freshwater fishes and crustaceans that can only live here. Toxic materials from development sites that are inadvertently spilt will pollute our forest streams. We stand to lose endemic denizens of our forest.

Let’s not lose the gift we have. Let’s keep it for our kids and theirs to enjoy.

It is still not too late.

We appeal to the LTA to courageously reconsider the route of the Cross Island Line such that it will not intersect our Central Nature Reserve.

Jimmy
A.S.S Contributor