01
Prioritise brownfield land first
Build on ageing industrial sites and under-used estates before clearing mature forest. A full public list of brownfield sites considered — and why they were rejected — has never been published.
Our Position
Build the homes without erasing the wild.
We are not against housing. We are against being told this is a choice between homes and forest when it isn't. Singapore has built flexibly and creatively before — and it can here. Avoidance is possible.
A better way to build
Build the homes and keep the forest.
02
Protect a Maju–Clementi greenway
Maju connects toward Clementi Forest along the Old Jurong Line. Protecting them as a linked green corridor preserves far more ecological value than either patch alone.
03
Assess forest loss cumulatively
Judge the impact across all of Singapore's threatened forests together — not project by project, which hides the true scale of what's being lost.
What we're asking for
Before we clear a forest, demonstrate why.
From A Community Declaration for Maju Forest, by concerned residents of Sunset Way. To answer one question honestly — does it really have to go? — we call for three things.
- 01
Avoid
Explore every viable alternative before clearing a forest. - 02
Include
Give affected communities a meaningful say. - 03
Demonstrate
Explain why the forest, why now, and why no alternative.
01
Avoid before we mitigate.
The EIA was rushed through in four months without assessing the social and community impacts of clearing Maju — urban heat, flood hazard, community health. It identifies biodiversity impacts as “Major Negative” even after mitigation, and the Critically Endangered Sunda pangolin, recorded in an earlier EIA, went unrecorded this time. An assessment should not simply tell us how to make destruction less harmful — it must first establish whether destruction is necessary at all.
We call for a comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) that fills the gaps and duration of the current one and properly considers:
- Biodiversity and ecosystem impacts
- Climate, heat and carbon impacts
- Flood hazard, vulnerability and water management
- Air quality, pollution and noise risks
- Human health and wellbeing
- Seasonal ecological conditions — the current surveys ran June to September, outside the migratory season and the wetter northeast monsoon
- Cumulative impacts alongside other developments
- Above all, whether the forest can be avoided altogether
02
Include affected people in decision-making.
The EIA feedback window was open for just 27 days — digital-only, English-only, on a poorly designed form. That is not meaningful engagement if people cannot understand the information, take part, or know what happens to their feedback. Everyone deserves to know; everyone deserves to be heard. Engagement like this must come before irreversible decisions, not after — and set a precedent for every future development on forested land.
We call for the feedback process to be reopened and expanded to include:
- Accessible, plain-language information
- Communication in multiple languages
- In-person, open-door community dialogues and information sessions
- Accessible alternatives to digital-only participation
- Clear timelines for ongoing and planned engagement
- Clarity on the stakeholder engagement process referred to in the 4 August parliamentary sitting
- Transparency about who is being consulted
- Public disclosure of the concerns raised
- A clear explanation of how community feedback will influence the decision
03
Demonstrate why it must be this greenfield site.
We've been told brownfield alternatives were considered, and that other viable sites will be developed “in the coming years.” But if clearing a forest is the necessary choice, the public deserves to understand why — and why now. Transparency is more than releasing documents: it means making the reasoning behind an irreversible decision understandable to the people affected by it.
Show us the evidence:
- What other brownfield sites were considered, and why were they ruled out?
- What are the plans for those alternative sites — and what proportion would be public versus private housing?
- What are the actual housing-demand projections driving this decision?
- What timelines and constraints supposedly require Maju Forest to be cleared?
The standard
A clear, legally enforceable Environmental and Social Impact Assessment.
We should not have to fight forest by forest, asking the same questions each time. Gillman, Tagore-Springleaf, Ulu Sembawang and more face the same fate. These principles should become the standard for every development that risks significant deforestation.
- Make comprehensive ESIAs a legal requirement for projects involving significant deforestation
- Place avoidance before minimisation and mitigation
- Require viable alternatives to be properly assessed
- Guarantee meaningful, accessible public participation — consulted early enough to influence the decision
- Make the evidence and rationale behind major land-use decisions transparent
- Establish clear thresholds for environmental and social damage
Avoidance should neither depend on public outcry nor media coverage. It should be the standard for all our green spaces.
Our principle
This is not an ask against development.
It is an ask for better planning — real care and attention for our natural spaces, and every alternative and avoidance strategy weighed before greenlighting such drastic deforestation. We are asking Singapore to build for a future it would be proud of.
A resilient city needs more than good buildings — especially in a climate crisis. It needs living ecosystems, biodiversity, trees, water, shade, and communities that thrive alongside development.
When faced with irreversible environmental loss, the first question should not be how we mitigate it — but how we avoid it.
Before we clear a forest, demonstrate why we have to. We should not have to lose Maju Forest too, to learn the value of what remains.
PDF
Read the declaration
A Community Declaration for Maju Forest — the full text, easy to read on any screen. (PDF, 10 MB)
PDF
The declaration zine
The same declaration as a designed zine — print it, share it. (PDF, 23 MB)
Agree? Add your voice.