The National Parks Board (NParks) will be launching a movement to plant a million trees across Singapore in the next 10 years.
This was announced by Desmond Lee, Second Minister for National Development in Parliament at the Ministry of National Development's Committee of Supply (COS) debate today (Mar. 4).
Tree planting pledged by Singaporeans and organisations
The trees will be planted in streetscapes, gardens, parks, park connectors, nature reserves, nature parks, and mangroves along coastal areas.
This is a community initiative which will tap on support from individuals and organisations.
Lee said:
"We want a whole new generation of Singaporeans to carry on this responsibility to keep planting and nurturing trees, for the benefit of future Singaporeans."
According to MND, about 100 individuals and 100 groups have already pledged their support for this movement.
This includes the Friends of the Park communities, the Community in Nature schools, Community in Bloom gardening groups, NParks volunteers, and nature groups.
Keppel Corporation, in particular, has pledged to donate S$3 million for the planting of some 10,000 trees in Singapore's parks and nature reserves over the next five years. This is the single largest donation pledged for tree-planting to date, according to NParks.
Other organisations such as the National University of Singapore, JTC Corporation, the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, and Shimizu have also pledged their support.
Forest-like structures along roads
In other tree-planting news, NParks will create multi-tiered forest-like structures along Singapore's roads. These roads are known as Nature Ways.
This will make Singapore's streets cooler, more comfortable, and more resilient to the effects of urbanisation.
These Nature Ways can be integrated with with pedestrian and cycling paths to form lush and natural park connectors, said Lee.
NParks aims to have 300km of Nature Ways by 2020, and aspires to make every road, where feasible, a Nature Way in the long run.
Cooling Singapore's industrial estates
It will also focus on greening Singapore's industrial estates such as Tuas Industrial Estate and Seletar Aerospace Park.
Industrial estates are some of the hottest areas on the island. Over the next 10 years, NParks will plant more than 100,000 trees in industrial estates.
"These efforts will cool the environment, improve air quality, and beautify surroundings in those industrial estates," said Lee.
Singaporeans can help design and build parks
In addition, Singaporeans will be able play a more active role in building and maintaining Singapore's parks.
Communities will be able to design, build, and manage more than 50 parks and estates over the next five years.
This includes designing park signage, promoting park etiquette, and partnering gardeners for landscape planting.
This is an extension of NParks' Friends of the Parks initiative, which aims to promote greater community stewardship the management of Singapore's green spaces.
More details about these initiatives will be announced at a later date.
If you would like to find out more about the 1,689 tree species that we have in Singapore, or discover the trees planted in your neighbourhood, you can do so at trees.sg.
Top image via NParks.