Contractor, supervisor get conditional warning over Lower Peirce Reservoir tree clearance: NParks
The contractor and project supervisor have been issued with a 24-month conditional warning.
The cleared tree-planting site in Lower Peirce Reservoir. (Photos: Facebook/Raffles' Banded Langurs)
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SINGAPORE: A contractor and project supervisor responsible for the unauthorised clearance of trees at Lower Peirce Reservoir have been issued with conditional warnings, the National Parks Board (NParks) said on Wednesday (Jul 1).
An area in the nature reserve contained trees planted under a nationwide greening initiative, but earlier in June, dozens of saplings and shrubs at the site were found to have been cleared.
In a statement to CNA, NParks' group director for enforcement and investigation, Ms Jessica Kwok, said the agency had completed investigations into the incident and "after carefully considering the facts and circumstances of the matter", issued the contractor and project supervisor with a 24-month conditional warning.
This was their first offence. However, if either party commits another offence during this period, they may be charged in court for both the original and new offences, she said.
It is an offence to cut, collect or displace any tree or plant within any national park or nature reserve without permission from the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation.
Offenders can be jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$50,000 (US$38,575) or receive both penalties.
NParks in June said that it was investigating the unauthorised clearance of a site in Lower Peirce Reservoir, which contained trees planted under the OneMillionTrees movement, which aims to plant 1 million trees across Singapore from 2020 to 2030.
It said at the time that routine inspections found that around 40 saplings and shrubs within half of the original tree-planting site had been cleared without approval to store materials at the site.
The agency on Wednesday said the contractor was engaged to carry out cyclical replacement of the boardwalk at Lower Peirce Reservoir, and needed to identify a location that was near the trail entrance to store their materials.
Ms Kwok said that NParks had communicated to the site supervisor that the planting site proposed by the contractor was not suitable for storage space, adding that the agency had identified a suitable location for storage, "on the condition that no trees or plants would be affected".
Its investigations showed that clearance of the saplings from an area of 40.5sqm in the 165.5sqm planting site was due to an error by the project supervisor who was covering the duties of the site supervisor on overseas leave.
"Although the site supervisor had communicated NParks’ directions to him, the project supervisor had misunderstood the instructions, and stored the materials at a site which NParks had earlier assessed to be not suitable," Ms Kwok said.
She added that when NParks discovered the unauthorised clearance and checked with the contractor, the contractor and project supervisor admitted their error.
They also agreed to bear the cost of replanting and maintaining the cleared plot in Lower Peirce Reservoir.
NParks has replanted the affected area with 60 new plants, with species originally planted in 2025, as well as three new species - which are food plants for the Raffles Banded Langur and a variety of forest birds
The replanting was completed on Jun 9.
