Public debates have often framed the conflict between conservation and deforestation as a zero-sum game: conserve forests for biodiversity or redevelop them to support economic and population growth. In land-scarce and development-driven Singapore, deforestation often continues unabated, greatly affecting the city’s ecology.

Yun Hye Hwang, a landscape researcher based in Singapore frames the problem as socio-ecological. Besides the obvious impacts on biodiversity, deforestation has political and socio-cultural ramifications. An overly technocratic and non-consultative approach in state-driven development of forests may have negative repercussions on state-civil society relations. Likewise, the loss of urban green spaces, many of which also hold cultural value, affects human well-being, physically and psychologically.

In a city where the government’s land-use allocation plan is revisited every 10 to 15 years, when can the views of the public be taken into consideration? What are the attitudes, choices, and voices that guide this conversation? What happens when humans decentre ourselves?

The story of Bukit Brown Cemetery, which begins in 1922, reveals the intricate web of relationships, patterns and processes of our physical, biological and social worlds. The 100,000 lives buried there tell “a multi-strata history of Singapore that includes the elite, middle, and working classes” (Bukit Brown Landscape Scenarios, 2013). Grave architecture materials from different parts of the world demonstrate how Singapore was a major crossroad for global trade and cultures. Over the years, partial neglect allowed nature to reclaim parts of the landscape – the original 233 hectare grounds was a habitat for over 90 animal species.

In 2011, the Singapore government announced plans to construct a 200 hectare highway through Bukit Brown, as well as long-term plans to turn the surrounding area into residential estates. While it is common practice for the Urban Redevelopment Authority to engage stakeholders after identifying an area for conservation or redevelopment, the government has proceeded with its plans, sometimes despite non-consensus.

In the case of Bukit Brown, the outcry that ensued was an uncharacteristic collaborative effort between nature groups, heritage groups, and other communities to save the landscape, involving experimentation with different modes of communicating with the State, from engineers coming up with alternative road design blueprints to artists speaking through speculative fiction. The multi-modal activism achieved a compromise between public and state: a highway that was two-lanes thinner and an eco bridge for animals to cross between adjacent primary forests. Today, wide buffer zones densely planted with native species, soften the transition between the natural habitat and roads. These buffer zones serve a range of low-impact recreational activities like hiking or bird-watching, which has become more common after the increase of public awareness of the area. The episode also opened the door for more state-civil society discourse about deforestation. While these small wins on the middle ground should be celebrated, some wonder if they spur or placate radical imagination about a more equitable future.