Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at 50th Anniversary of Tree Planting Day
Nov 7, 2021
A very good morning to everyone. I am glad to join you in marking the 50th anniversary of our island-wide Tree Planting Day today, and to share our plans to enhance the Labrador Nature Reserve.
Our greening journey started on 16 June 1963, when our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew planted a Mempat tree at Farrer Circus. Mr Lee believed that we should have trees and lush greenery throughout our city, to provide shade and a more liveable environment for our people. He was practical, too – he knew that a green city that was well tended to would give people more confidence to invest in Singapore and create opportunities.
And so, starting from that one Mempat tree at Farrer Circus, Mr Lee galvanised the community to plant trees all over the city. Year after year, Singaporeans came together and planted trees, starting with saplings provided by the Government, along our roads, in our housing estates, schools, carparks and more.
To support these greening efforts, Mr Lee Kuan Yew established Tree Planting Day exactly 50 years ago. On 7 November 1971, Dr Goh Keng Swee joined the community to plant trees at Mount Faber Park, and tree-planting was carried out all over the island by the community as well. Since then, Singaporeans have come together every year to plant trees with their family and friends to keep this tradition alive. And, if you look at Facebook posts you will see that tree planting is happening in different parts of Singapore.
50 years on, we are making an even bigger push towards greenery and sustainability, by transforming Singapore into a City in Nature. As a small city-state, we face intense land-use challenges, as we strive to balance the many needs of a country, within the limits of our city. And as our people’s aspirations grow and our society evolves, we will need land to provide even more housing, healthcare and other amenities.
Our ambition to be a City in Nature is our way of responding to these challenges, by finding more innovative ways to weave nature into the fabric of our city. This is so that nature can thrive right in the heart of our city, and for Singaporeans to enjoy the benefits of nature for generations to come.
Tree planting is an important part of our City in Nature efforts. Under the OneMillionTrees movement which we launched in April 2020, we will plant one million more trees across our island by 2030. This is not just a quantitative exercise. We are also carefully selecting native species and where we plant these trees, to enhance habitats – including in our core biodiversity areas, such as Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, through the Forest Restoration Action Plan that we announced in 2019.
Another of our core biodiversity areas is Labrador Nature Reserve. It protects the only remaining natural rocky shore habitat on mainland Singapore; and it is home to over 100 bird species and 15 mangrove species, including critically endangered species such as the Straw-headed Bulbul.
We are taking additional steps to strengthen the ecological and climate resilience of this core habitat, by putting in place a Forest Restoration Action Plan for the Labrador Nature Reserve as well. This builds on NParks’ conservation efforts over the years. Together with the community, we will plant around 5,000 native trees that are suited to the coastal forest environment. This will help restore the coastal forest and buffer the core habitats within the Nature Reserve. The trees that we plant will provide food and shelter for our native species, and strengthen the resilience of our ecosystem. We will also continue to enhance the conservation of the core habitats in the Nature Reserve.
To kick off this effort and to mark the 50th anniversary of Tree Planting Day, we will plant 50 native coastal trees at the Labrador Nature Reserve today, together with our friends from the nature community, and our kind donors. These 50 trees consist of 25 native species, including locally extinct species such as the Twin-Apple tree (Ochrosia oppositifolia), which produces a fruit that looks like two green apples fused together, and the critically endangered Pink-eyed Pong Pong tree (Cerbera manghas), which produces pretty pink-eyed white flowers. These trees will add to the greenery and vibrance of the Labrador Nature Reserve.
Beyond this, we will study how we can enhance the connectivity between Labrador Nature Reserve and its surrounding green spaces, as we embark on our future plans for the area. Taken together, these efforts will improve habitats for our native biodiversity, and enhance ecological connectivity in this area. They will also allow Singaporeans to better appreciate the biodiversity and history here.
I would like to acknowledge Keppel Corporation’s generous support of our efforts in this area. Earlier this year, Keppel donated $3 million to the Garden City Fund to support our tree-planting efforts, including the 5,000 trees we will be planting in the Labrador Nature Reserve.
Today, I would like to thank Keppel for yet another generous pledge of $1 million, which will go towards creating a new trail for the community to explore and experience the restored coastal forest. This coastal trail will have information boards to allow visitors to learn more about coastal habitats and their resident biodiversity, while providing good views of the sea from various vantage points. This supports both our biodiversity conservation efforts, and efforts to foster greater appreciation and stewardship of our green spaces. We will begin the design and development of the coastal trail next year, and will share more details when ready.
Let me also take the opportunity to thank everyone from the community who has contributed to our greening efforts over the years. Transforming Singapore into a City in Nature is painstaking but meaningful work, and we need your continued support. Whether it’s through tree-planting, biodiversity conservation, or other efforts, thank you for investing your time and resources to this cause. As a mark of our appreciation, we will be dedicating four Heritage Trees today to some of our donors to our Garden City Fund today. Their support has been as strong and steady as these trees, and we hope that, like these trees, it will continue to grow over time.
We hope that more people will come forward and join us in our journey to transform Singapore into a City in Nature. If you are interested to get involved, do join us for our other tree-planting activities, under our OneMillionTrees movement. Or sign up for our citizen science programmes, biodiversity conservation surveys, and other initiatives under our Community in Nature programme. You can visit the NParks website, or write in to us at any time.
I wish you all a meaningful Tree Planting Day. Thank you.