A Large Coastal Forest in S’pore, The Size of 17 Football Fields, Will Be Restored

Tree lovers, rejoice: today, NParks announced that over 5,000 native trees will be restored in the Labrador Nature Reserve. These trees will be part of the 12.5-hectare area coastal forest in Labrador, along the Greater Southern Waterfront.

Of the 12.5-hectare area land, the 2.5-hectare area will be between the coastal hill forest and the sea. The restoration area is the size of 17 football fields.

This restoration is part of Singapore’s ongoing efforts to ensure the future generations know what a “forest” look like. They aim to restore the habitats by 2030 – merely nine years from now.

Keppel Corporation is also contributing S$1 million for a new trail to help future visitors explore the coastal beach forest easily.

This is on top of their pledge of S$3 million that goes to the planting of 10,000 trees. Half of these trees will be in the Labrador Nature Reserve.

Labrador Nature Reserve

Despite being one of the smallest nature reserves in Singapore, Labrador Nature Reserve’s habitats contain a variety of flora and fauna.

Over 100 bird species, 41 butterfly species, 15 mangrove species and four seagrass species call Labrador Nature Reserve their home.

The restoration work will give the native species more food and shelter, thus strengthening the ecosystem resilience.

The rocky shore at Labrador Nature Reserve is also said to be one of the last remaining natural rocky shores in Singapore. A large diversity of marine species could be found on the shores.

Some examples are Blue-spotted Fantail Rays, Blacktip Reef Sharks and eagle rays. The authorities will be monitoring and restoring the rocky shore as well.

Singapore’s Tree Planting Day

If you want to do your part for the environment, another way of restoring the greenery of Singapore is through initiatives like Tree Planting Day.

50 years ago on this day (7 Nov), our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew kick-started the greening of Singapore and called for a tree-planting campaign to be launched. This lead to the first-ever Tree Planting Day to be launched on 7 Nov 1971.

50 years later, we are commemorating the 50th anniversary of Tree Planting Day by planting 50 native coastal trees of 25 different species at Labrador Nature Reserve. This is part of the OneMillionTrees movement.

Some of the species include the twin apple tree (Ochrosia oppositifolia) which is locally extinct and the pink-eye pong pong tree (Cerbera Manghas). The pink-eye pong pong tree is currently critically endangered.

Four heritage trees were also dedicated to donors who made significant contributions to our City in Nature vision.

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Featured Image: Facebook (NParks)