As the old saying goes,
“Prevention is better than cure”
Implementing governmental policies serve to prevent the degradation of our environment by protecting the interest of the natural role and setting limits on the mankind’s activities.
Governments play a salient role in environmental protection. They develop legislation and policies which sets the boundaries for what is deemed as lawful and sustainable practices. Very often, flouting these laws lead to consequences that serve as deterrence to prevent future performance of these acts. The two main legislations in Singapore is the Trees and Park Act as well as the National Parks Board Act.
Trees and Park Act
The trees and park act was was officially enacted in 1975.
The trees and park act was officially enacted in 1975. This act empowers NParks to care for trees and plants within nature reserves, national parks, tree conservation areas, heritage road green buffers and other areas specified under the act. NParks has played a salient role in the maintenance and conservation of our greenery thanks to the jurisdiction this act provides.
Some areas covered by this legislation include:
1.Establishment of national parks and nature reserves
This act mandates that specified regions of Singapore as set aside for the establishment of nature reserves to conserve and protect native and indigenous plant and animal species. This means that we have protected regions designed for green spaces yay! Currently our national parks and nature reserves are protected under the Parks and Trees act. These are the reserves that are conserved by law:
- Bukit Timah Nature reserve (163 hectares)
- Central Catchment Nature Reserve (3043 hectares)
- Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (131 Hectares)
- Laborador Nature Reserve (10 Hectares)
Image source: Parks like these are protected by law!
These areas also serve as sites for research and investigative work so that knowledge about botany, biodiversity and horticulture can be accumulated. Lastly nature reserves are sites for recreation and education for public use. Many visitors frequent these places to learn more about nature and to utilize its facilities.
2.Protection of trees and plants
“Ooh a pretty flower, I want to bring it home!” Imagine a park where everyone was allowed to treat nature as they deem fit; sawing down trees, cutting up plants and plucking flowers to beautify their own homes. Can you imagine how chaotic things would be?
Thankfully this act ensures humans respect plant and animal species and prevents the mistreatment of our green spaces. According to section 8 of the Parks and Trees Act, no individual is allowed to carry out any the following activities stated below, unless granted permission from the commissioner:
- Cut, collect or displace any tree or plant or any part of it
- Set up or erect any sign, shrine, altar, religious object, shelter, structure of building
- Clear, break up, dig or cultivate any land
- Wilfully drop or deposit any dirt, sand, gravel, clay, loam, manure, refuse, sawdust, shavings, stone, straw or any other matter or thing from outside the national park or reserve
Any persons caught violating the law and found guilty may face a $50,000 fine or 6 months of imprisonment.
3. Tree Conservation Areas (TCA)
This act sets as two regions of Singapore to serve as tree conservation areas. According to NParks, tree conservation areas are ‘geographical areas in central and eastern Singapore designated by the government to safeguard mature trees against unnecessary felling’. Mature trees which are extremely valuable, are usually found clustered in these regions and the Singapore government wishes to preserve them for the enjoyment of future generations.
Here is a map illustrating the two TCA regions in Singapore, the Changi TCA and the Centra TCA
Image Source
Under this act, no one is allowed to cut down or damage a tree of having girth of more than one meter in these regions. Anyone who wishes to cut down a mature tree that falls under this condition will have to seek approval from the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation.
If you are interested to find out more about the trees and park’s act click here!
National Parks Board Act
As mentioned in the previous segment, the national parks national parks board is the main stakeholder in the protection and maintenance of Singapore’s greenery. Therefore the government saw a need to pass a bill to authorise its initiatives so as to garner public support for conservation issues. This act was enacted in 1996 to empower NParks to ‘provide for its functions and powers, and for matter connected therewith. ‘ as stated on the NParks website.
According to section 6, some of the key functions of the Board are:
- To control, administer and manage the national parks and nature reserves
- To plan, design, develop, manage and maintain public parks
- To provide propagate, protect and preserve the animals, plants and other organisms of Singapore, and within the national parks, nature reserves and public parks, to preserve objects and places of aesthetic, historical or scientific interests.
- To promote research and dissemination of knowledge in botany, horticulture, biotechnology, arboriculture, landscape architecture, parks and recreation management and natural and local history.
- To advise the government on all matters relating to nature conservation and the planning, development and management of public parks.
