Bukit Timah, Singapore

When Sir Stamford Raffles landed in Singapore in 1819, he found an island covered in lush forests. The rainforest at the highest point on the island, Bukit Timah Hill, contained a rich variety of plant species. Slightly more than half a century later, in 1883, Bukit Timah became the first forest reserve established for nature conservation in Singapore.

Today, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve continues to be a treasured home for Singapore’s biodiversity – it contains about 40% of the country’s native flora and land fauna, and around 15% of the total primary dipterocarp rainforest left in Singapore. This is particularly remarkable for this 163ha gazetted nature reserve, whose size makes up only about 0.2% of the total country area of 719.1 sq km.

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