Remarks by MOS Tan Kiat How at FairPrice Plant for Good
Nov 12, 2021
Good morning. I am happy to join FairPrice at your Plant for Good event at Bedok Reservoir Park today.
NParks’ OneMillionTrees Movement
The OneMillionTrees movement is key in supporting Singapore’s transformation into a City in Nature. Under this movement, we are planting a million more trees across our island from 2020 to 2030.
This movement is not just a quantitative effort to increase the number of trees on our island. We are planting back what is lost to development and more, restoring nature in our urban areas and harnessing the many benefits and services that our trees provide to all of us. Trees make our island greener and more liveable, by providing shade, cooling the environment, improving air quality and beautifying our surroundings. They also sequester and store carbon on a long-term basis, strengthening our climate resilience. In addition, by planting them in a naturalistic way to resemble the look and feel of our forests, we can strengthen our ecological resilience by creating natural corridors that allow our flora and fauna to move easily between our green spaces.
Since the launch of the OneMillionTrees movement in April 2020, we have planted more than 270,000 trees, in partnership with our communities, stakeholders and corporate partners like FairPrice.
FairPrice’s Support
I’m encouraged to see that FairPrice has come onboard the Plant-A-Tree programme, and I would like to sincerely thank FairPrice for your generous donation of $180,000. With this, we can plant another 600 trees in our parks, Park Connectors and Nature Parks by the end of next year.
To mark our partnership, we are planting 50 trees here in Bedok Reservoir Park with FairPrice, comprising ten species of trees that are native to Singapore. These include the
Tristaniopsis obovata, a large tree that can grow up to 45 m tall and is critically endangered in Singapore, and the
Horsfieldia irya that is more commonly found on offshore islands like Pulau Tekong and is a food source for the Oriental Pied Hornbill.
These native tree species were specially selected for planting under the OneMillionTrees movement, to maintain a healthy, balanced ecosystem that can support a wide variety of flora and fauna. Planting native trees and shrubs provides more natural habitats and food for our native biodiversity, and helps to restore the natural rainforest structure in our green spaces. It also supports species recovery efforts for some of our native tree species that are critically endangered.
Singapore’s City in Nature Vision
Building a greener and more sustainable Singapore is painstaking work, and we would not be able to achieve this without the strong support of our communities and stakeholders. I’m very heartened by FairPrice’s contributions towards the OneMillionTrees movement, and we hope that you will continue working with us on our journey to transform Singapore into a City in Nature.
Thank you very much.