SINGAPORE - The movement to plant one million more trees and restore nature back in Singapore has crossed the halfway mark, with more than 540,000 trees introduced across the Republic since the launch of the OneMillionTrees Movement in April 2020.

The National Parks Board (NParks) on Saturday said the programme is three years ahead of its 2030 target, adding that together with the community, they have planted trees along streetscapes, on Jurong Island and other industrial estates, and within nature reserves and gardens.

Trees have also been introduced in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Jurong Lake Gardens, Pulau Ubin, Pasir Ris Park and Telok Blangah Hill Park.

“Over 75,000 members of the community have been involved in these efforts,” said NParks, adding that corporations and other organisations have also made commitments to contribute to the movement via the Plant-a-Tree programme through NParks’ registered charity and institution of public character (IPC), the Garden City Fund.

Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said Singapore’s greening journey started on June 16, 1963, when founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew launched the first nationwide tree-planting campaign.

“A few years later, he started the tradition of marking Tree Planting Day annually, to get people out to plant trees all over our island.

“We continue this tradition to this very day, and will continue to do so well into the future,” said Mr Lee, who added that the first greenery plan was set in 1967, to transform Singapore into a Garden City.

The minister, who was speaking at an event on Saturday at the Singapore Botanic Gardens to mark 60 years of greening Singapore, said the island could have easily become a city of concrete and steel because of competing needs for the little land that was available.

“It was because of the movement that started 60 years ago, that we are one of the world’s greenest cities today,” said Mr Lee.

A key thrust of the Singapore Green Plan to restore nature and build climate resilience is to transform the city-state into a City in Nature.

“We will weave nature much more deliberately and intensively into the fabric of our city, so that city and nature can better co-exist.

“To do this, we will safeguard more green spaces, naturalise more of our existing green and blue spaces, step up our conservation of important native plants and animal species, restore and enhance our forest, coastal and marine habitats, and strengthen ecological connectivity, as well as our park connector networks islandwide,” he said.

Mr Lee said the OneMillionTrees Movement is not just a quantitative exercise.

Trees provide shade and cool the environment, improve air quality, provide habitats for biodiversity, and even sequester and store carbon to mitigate the effects of climate change, he added.

“We are also planting a diverse range of native trees, from the Pink Mempat, with its cherry blossom-like flowers, to the endangered Giam Rambai, a rare species found only in southern Peninsular Malaysia.

“We are involving the community in these efforts, not just in planting the trees, but in collecting seeds and nurturing the saplings in our network of community nurseries across Singapore,” said Mr Lee.

To commemorate Singapore’s greening journey, 60 native trees were planted in the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Saturday, including the Mempat tree, the same species which Mr Lee Kuan Yew used to kick-start the greening campaign. 

Mr Low Joo Kek, a volunteer with NParks since 2015, said: “Keeping Singapore green should be everyone’s responsibility and not just the government agencies.”

“I believe that that once someone plants a tree, he will have a sense of ownership and will be more responsible to the environment,” the 66-year-old added.