Speech by Minister Desmond Lee for the Sungei Buloh Nature Park Network Launch

Aug 19, 2020

We want to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, by infusing greenery and nature more intensively into our city. This will help us to cushion the impact of urbanisation and mitigate the effects of climate change. At the same time, we will extend Singapore’s natural capital, strengthen ecological resilience, and bring our families and communities closer together.

One key strategy is to expand our network of Nature Parks. These parks allow us to enjoy nature-based recreation. They also serve as green buffers to protect our nature reserves from the impact of urbanisation. Today, we have the Central Nature Park Network, comprising nature parks like Dairy Farm, Windsor, and Thomson, which are located around the Bukit Timah and Central Catchment Nature Reserves. 

As we transform Singapore into a City in Nature, we will establish the Sungei Buloh Nature Park Network around Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. This Network will comprise sites such as Kranji Marshes, and the upcoming Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat Nature Park as they complement each other and are ecologically interconnected.

I am happy to announce that we will have yet another nature park in the Sungei Buloh Nature Park Network. The new 18-hectare Lim Chu Kang Nature Park will lie to the west of Sungei Buloh. It will include mangrove, woodland, scrubland and grassland habitats that link the Wetland Reserve and Lim Chu Kang mangroves ecologically. It will also contain Cashin House, a heritage building which will be conserved and enhanced sensitively to showcase our natural and built heritage. 

We will open the Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat, as well as the Lim Chu Kang Nature Parks, over the next few years. Singaporeans can look forward to enjoying activities such as hiking and bird-watching at these new parks. The parks will also support our unique mangrove and mudflat habitats, and protect them for generations to come.

The Kranji Coastal Nature Park, formerly known as the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve eastern extension, forms an important ecological connection between Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat in the east, and the Kranji Marshes in the south. Enhancing the habitats in Kranji Coastal Nature Park is a first step towards strengthening the ecological resilience of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. 

We will need your active participation, as a community, if we are to succeed in transforming Singapore into a City in Nature. We want to invite you to join us over the next 10 years, to plant one million trees all around our island. 

Today, I am joined by some of our partners for the One Million Trees Movement, from Keppel Corporation and our Friends of Sungei Buloh community. We are going to plant coastal and mangrove species at Kranji Coastal Nature Park.

As the COVID-19 situation improves, we are working with our key partners to organise more tree-planting events as Singapore gradually reopens. 

If you are keen to join us, please register through NParks’ TreesSG portal. The portal has been enhanced recently to enable you to share your tree planting experiences, and track our progress towards our goal of planting one million trees. Do join us on this journey!