Straits Times, Singapore : The Garden City is getting greener

By Sharmilpal Kaur

CALL it the re-greening of Singapore.

Even a rubbish dump gets attention, as students and grassroots leaders, led by Southwest CDC mayor Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, plant trees on the bunds of Pulau Semakau. The aim is to plant 360 trees there, to bring a touch of green to the offshore landfill. Past efforts include planting 13ha of mangroves in 1999. -- ONG CHIN KAI

Even though there are already more than one million trees in Singapore, more are being planted by the National Parks Board (NParks) and other organisations - not to add to Singapore's Garden City appeal, but to protect the native species here.

Reforestation 'rehabilitates' land that has been damaged by strong winds, dry weather, creepers and exotic plants which are non-native to Singapore.

It also includes the greening of barren land.

Some of the areas that are getting an extra touch of 'local green' include Pulau Ubin, the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, MacRitchie, Upper Peirce and Mandai reservoirs, and Gangsa.

So far, about 50ha - almost the size of the Botanic Gardens off Holland Road - have been reforested.

BREATHING LIFE INTO
OFFSHORE LANDFILL

THE Pulau Semakau offshore landfill was created as a rubbish dump, but that has not stopped the National Parks Board from bringing the 350ha offshore site to life by planting trees.
Along with Southwest Community Development Council and the National Environment Agency (NEA), it will plant 360 trees on bunds there.

Yesterday, Southwest CDC mayor Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, students and grassroots leaders planted 62 trees. The avid nature lover told reporters that she intends to continue planting trees there and explore doing so on the offshore islands.

The landfill is not totally bare. The NEA planted 13ha of mangroves in 1999. These are now more than 4m tall.

Besides getting greener, it seems that Singapore is also throwing out less rubbish.

The landfill is being filled up more slowly now, said Mr Vincent Teo, 45, general manager of the Semakau landfill, which is divided into 11 plots between 6ha and 30ha in size. So far, two plots have been filled.

Every day, about 1,450 tonnes of incineration ash and another 550 tonnes of waste that cannot be burned are dumped there and levelled.

The landfill is about 2m to 3m above sea level, but can be filled up to a height of 30m.

The fringes of these reserves are often overrun by creepers, which find it easy to take over open areas near roads.

These creepers are often exotic plants, such as smilax creepers, which grow aggressively and suffocate younger native trees.

These are replaced with local tree species such as shoreas.

In the wetlands of Pulau Ubin and Sungei Buloh, especially in barren areas, mainly coastal and mangrove trees are planted.

The good news is that reforestation is generally successful, with some trees already bearing fruit and flowers.

The effort is a combined one, with companies and schools also pitching in to help NParks.

Companies have adopted small plots of land since 1991, clearing the areas of creepers and other exotic species of plants before planting new trees.

Schools do their bit too. After companies have 'renewed' an area, schoolchildren move in as 'caretakers', weeding regularly and caring for the trees that they have adopted.

Not only do the newly greened areas get looked after, the children also get to learn more about the environment.

One company that has shown real green thumbs is wafer fab manufacturer STMicroelectronics, the first company in Singapore to take on mass reforestation.

It started a five-year project to reforest 1ha of degraded land at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in 2001, with the aim of covering the area with 1,000 trees in five years.

But in only 2 1/2 years, it had done the job with just 400 trees.

In appreciation, NParks has given STMicroelectronics another 1ha of land to plant the remaining 600 trees.