Kampung Histories of the Dover Forest

The land now known as the Dover Forest had been previously known as the Chua Kampung. Chua Chintat, an advocate of the Dover Forest, had family members who lived in the Chua Kampung. Alhough Chintat did not grow up in the kampung and had only visited a few times as a child, he recalled some of the origins of its people.

It started with my great-grandfather, he was directly from China, I’m not sure whether he was one of the founding dwellers of the kampung. The kampung started in 1905, my grandfather was also there right at the beginning, My surname is Chua, so this kampung was mostly people with the last name Chua, so they were from the province of Fujian. So a lot of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia comes from Guangdong and Fujian cause that’s where the ships set sail from. So this kampung was mostly Chua’s from the town in Fujian so yeah if you are looking for any relics of the kampung, I don’t think there are any buildings left standing except for the kampung temple. That is still run by the temple trustees, so the temple caretakers live in that temple.

Artifacts of the Chua Kampung can be found in the Dover Forest: slanted electric lines blend in with the trees, and brick steps hide beneath the leaf litter. Living artifacts like the Sea Almond, or Ketapang, also inhabit the forest as reminders of the people who brought these seeds with them across the sea.

Native and Non-native Residents of the Dover Forest

The ecological community of the Dover Forest spans a wide range of species, both native and non-native. As part of Chintat's advocacy for the Dover Forest, he highlights the diverse tree and fig species of the Dover forest amongst other species like the bioluminescent Filoboletus manipularis. The Environmental Baseline Study for Dover/Ulu Pandan (EBS) listed twenty-seven large trees of significance within Dover Forest that are conservation-significant because of the potential of long-term ecosystem service provisions by large tree species such as thermal cooling, carbon sequestration, and fauna habitat/food source.¹ The Dover Forest is also home to an incredible diversity of figs including the critically endangered White fig, Ficus virens and non-native Indian rubber, Ficus elastica. These figs are a keystone species in the Dover Forest ecosystem, providing important food resources for a wide range of species.²

An understated and somewhat less popular tree species, the non-native Albizia tree, Falcataria moluccana, proves to be a vital species in the Dover Forest ecosystem as a nesting and breeding site for the residential Changeable Hawk Eagles and Oriental Pied Hornbills. The Albizia tree is globally well-known for its fast growth and nitrogen-fixing abilities. It was introduced into Singapore in the 1870s as a means of providing quick afforestation and shade given the species’ ability to rapidly grow a tall trunk.³ However, this rapid growth came at the cost of a thick, sturdy trunk and deep roots making the tree species prone to falling and branch breakage, inducing in some members of the public what came to be known as “falling tree anxiety”.⁴ What was initially intended to be a quick solution to Singapore’s initial greening efforts soon became a hazard. However, residents of the Dover Forest like the Changeable Hawk Eagle and the Oriental Pied Hornbill, both native and endangered birds in Singapore, find the Albizia tree to be a perfect setup to build their nests.

The natural cavities in the Albizia tree offer the Oriental Pied Hornbill suitable breeding sites for their young. Citizen scientists have observed the residential male Oriental Pied Hornbill deliver fruits, insects, and lizards to his mate nesting in the hollow of an albizia tree in East Dover Forest between March and April of 2022.

The resident Changeable Hawk Eagles were also observed in a nest feeding and breeding at the canopy of an Albizia tree in East Dover Forest for both breeding seasons in 2022 and 2023.⁵

The last eaglet of the Dover Forest nicknamed Snowy, has also been observed feeding and nesting in the nest on the Albizia tree.

Both of these species have also been observed interacting amongst the Albizia trees, revealing the ways that these two species potentially coexist within their respective nests in close proximity and with breeding cycles occurring over a similar period of time.⁶

Habitats like the Dover Forest are crucial for the protection of species like the Oriental Pied Hornbill and the Changeable Hawk Eagle. Although species numbers have been on the rise in recent years, there lacks a sufficient understanding of their species' vulnerability, habitat suitability, and prey density in the local context. A study done in 2011 counted six active nest sites and three pairs of eagles exhibiting pairing behavior, which rounded the local changeable hawk eagle population to nine pairs of eagles.⁷ This study did not include the pair observed in the Dover Forest, which would bring the local population to roughly ten pairs of eagles.

Documenting and Remembering the Forest

As of July 2023, most of East Dover Forest has been deforested for new housing developments. According to Dover Forest advocate, Eng Keong Chng, the residential Oriental Pied Hornbills had relocated their nest at Medway Park along Dover Road back in 2022 prior to the deforestation. However, the residential Changeable Hawk Eagles remained in East Dover Forest. Given that Snowy, the youngest member of the Dover Forest residents, had only hatched earlier in the year, the Albizia tree on which the nest sits has remained intact for the rest of the year in large part due to the advocacy of Chintat. However, the surrounding ecosystem that Snowy and other species of the Dover Forest relied on for survival has been demolished, leaving the individual Hawk Eagles intact but eliminating their habitat and means of survival.

While the East Dover Forest is now essentially gone, the dedicated documentation of the species that once inhabited this forest shows us an example of the ways that non-native species like the Albizia tree offer valuable roosting and nesting sites for native species like the Oriental Pied Hornbills and Changeable Hawk Eagles.⁸ The preservation of small patches of secondary forest in and around urban areas, like the Dover Forest, are vital to maintaining important ecological functions such as increased foraging ground, providing stepping stones for wildlife dispersal, and providing habitats for resident species, especially endangered ones.⁹

I extend my gratitude to the Dover Forest advocates, residential bird-watchers, citizen scientists, photographers, artists, and hikers that continue to document the Dover Forest.

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