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Habitatnews 2002-01: Tuesday, 8th January 2001
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A Chek Jawa update - After the reprieve: Managing the impact.

"...even the starfishes on the beach are smiling" - Chia Meng
Tze's comment, reproduced on the front page of the Straits Times,
29th December 2001 in response to the Ministry of National
Development's (MND) media release announcing the reprieve on
reclamation on 20th December 2001.

After some hesitation, a flurry of media reports emerged, fuelled
by letters to the press and MND's media release which "advised
members of the public that there is no longer an urgent need to
rush to visit Chek Jawa."

But the situation is not over yet. The Minister of National
Development, Mr Mah Bow Tan, invited feedback from the group
he met on 20th December 2001. Most responded by 2nd January
2002. Apparently the final word on Chek Jawa may be determined
by 15th January 2002.

In the meantime, Chek Jawa, battered by our footsteps these
past few months, actually needs time to recover. Ironically
media attention (including reports to stay away) actually
encourage more visits!

Victor Yue suggested sensibly that "Maybe, we should not go
and let the general public go first." (Nature Singapore mailing
list, 29th December).

At the meeting of the 20th of December 2001, the Minister also
invited representatives from the Nature Society (Singapore) and
the National University of Singapore's Raffles Museum of
Biodiversity Research to assist NParks in resolving the
issue of eager crowds.

So a reflective end to the New Year was abandoned in favor of
emergency guiding sessions at Chek Jawa! The objectives?
Accommodate all who came, yet somehow protect the site.

When the Raffles Museum guides met on Saturday 29th December,
Changi Jetty was swarming with volunteer staff from NParks.
At Chek Jawa later, seven museum guides and three Ubin NParks
staff hastily formed up 10 stations along a route that covered
most of the habitats of Chek Jawa. With animals at or near
their station, Station guides spun a tale of two to
entertained the groups.

More than 20 NParks volunteer staff, some on their first visit
to Chek Jawa, handled coordination, registration and ushered
groups of 20-30 along the designated route, minimising the
impact. It was not always easy, since some visitors were
unaware of the need to allow Chek Jawa a chance to recover,
particularly after a lengthy wait. Perhaps 400 - 600 came
that day.

More came on Sunday! Thankfully, so too did more museum guides
and a team from the Nature Society (Singapore). Though it was
a stressful day, both crowd management and guide coordination
improved. The system hastily adopted on the first day was
improving.

I asked Timothy and Joel (NSS) to handle the second station -
the rocky shore habitat. Faced with this habitat for the first
time they thumbed through guidebooks and guidesheets after a quick
tutorial. It was amusing to see the transformation to confidence
- they soon varied their repertoire, incorporated new animals,
split to handle larger crowds, adopted different positions on
the rock, and changed their dialogue to suit the groups.

I could only imagine how the others were managing. We would
end up telling our stories to more than twenty groups that day,
ending up hoarse, dehydrated and exhausted. Estimates suggest
between 1,000 - 1,300 visited Chek Jawa that weekend. And most
of them did agree that Chek Jawa was a wonderful present to all
Singaporeans for the New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!
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