Thomson Nature Park is a

nature park A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. Opened on 12 October 2019, it is located adjacent to

Central Catchment Nature Reserve The Central Catchment Nature Reserve (CCNR) is the largest nature reserve in Singapore, occupying 2880 hectares. Forming a large green lung in the geographical centre of the city, it houses several recreational sites, including the Singapore Zo ...

near Old Upper Thomson Road.

Background

The park is being developed on the site of a former

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

village which was established in the 1800s and abandoned in 1975. It will be about 50

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s in size. Presbytis femoralis Andie Ang

One purpose of the park is to help conserve the biodiversity in the area. The park is one of five being developed in Singapore during the late 2010s near Central Catchment to increase the buffer between the park and the surrounding urban area and attract visitors who would otherwise visit the country's nature reserves. Fauna living in the forested areas of the park include the

Sunda pangolin The Sunda pangolin (''Manis javanica''), also known as the Malayan or Javan pangolin, is a species of pangolin. It is a member of the Manidae family. Its English name comes from the Malay name "pëngulin", which means "roller". It is native to S ...

, the

Malayan porcupine The Malayan porcupine or Himalayan porcupine (''Hystrix brachyura'') is a species of rodent in the family Hystricidae. Three subspecies are extant in South Asia, South and Southeast Asia. Geographical distribution The Malayan porcupine ranges f ...

, the samba deer, the

leopard cat The leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') is a Felinae, small wild cat native to continental South Asia, South, Southeast Asia, Southeast, and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List as it is widely di ...

, the

straw-headed bulbul The straw-headed bulbul (''Pycnonotus zeylanicus'') is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found from the Malay Peninsula to Borneo. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or ...

Malayan box turtle The Amboina box turtle or Southeast Asian box turtle (''Cuora amboinensis'') is a species of Asian box turtle widely distributed across Southeast Asia. It is native to the Asian mainland from northeast India, through Bangladesh, Burma and Thaila ...

and the cinnamon frog. It is also intended to help conserve the

Raffles' banded langur The Raffles' banded langur (''Presbytis femoralis''), also known as the banded leaf monkey or banded surili, is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. It is endemic to Singapore and southern Peninsular Malaysia. The species underwen ...

, a type of leaf monkey which is critically endangered within Singapore and whose small Singapore population often feeds in nearby forest. Trees in the park will include several species of ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few spe ...

'',

angsana ''Pterocarpus indicus'' (commonly known as Amboyna wood, Malay padauk, Papua New Guinea rosewood, Philippine mahogany, Andaman redwood, Burmese rosewood, narra (from Tagalog) and asana in the Philippines, angsana, or Pashu padauk) is a species ...

and common pulai. Besides enjoying nature, park visitors will be able to see the remains of the Hainan village. Groundbreaking of the project was marked by Singapore's Second Minister for National Development planting a '' Radermachera pinnata'' tree. According to Lee: "These buffer parks protect the Central Catchment (Nature Reserve) from fringe effects. If you have roads, development right up to the nature reserve, you will subject it to all the impacts of the urban setting...Having these nature parks near but not within the reserve will allow members of the public to enjoy the outdoors with their families and that takes pressure off our very precious nature reserve."

Opening

Thomson Nature Park opened on 12 October 2019. It has five trails spanning 3.8km into previous kampung areas. Now it is Singapore's newest and seventh nature park.

Kampung routes

Besides the site of a deserted Hainan Village, the trails in the park also covers extensive forest areas. You may encounter rich wildlife along the trails.

References

{{Parks in Singapore 2019 establishments in Singapore Parks in Singapore Important Bird Areas of Singapore Nature parks