Every year, our government will set aside a sum of money from our budget. Below are just a overview of how much was given to the NParks for their major initiatives to make Singapore a “City in Garden” in recent years.

2010: $590 million

2011:  $563 million

2012:  $301 million

2013: $255 million

The major initiatives (that could be part of the strategies in the master plan) includes:

• To Establish World-Class Gardens

From 2010-2013, a part of the funding from the government was used to build and maintain the Gardens By The Bay and also support the initiative to get the community involved while also enhancing the visitors’ experience.

In 2012, part of the fund was also channeled to the redevelopment on the Singapore Botanic Gardens. An additional piece land that holds matured secondary forest will be incorporated into the Singapore Botanic Garden and be developed into a learning forest.  A new Foliage Garden and Fragrant Garden was also introduced to store further collection of plants. In 2013, development within the Singapore Botanic Gardens still continues and plans to revitalize the National Orchid Garden was made.

• Optimize Urban Spaces for Greenery and Recreation

Throughout the 4 years, funds are also directed to building the Park Connector Network. The Park Connector Network was set up to provide a green island-wide network that connect all the major parks, nature sides and housing estates in Singapore altogether.Not only will this allow a green cape to cover our island, it allows the citizens to have interaction with the greenery as they have their recreational activities there.

Skyrise greenery was also implemented and promoted by the NParks as they are great when it comes to saving land for other uses. These greenery can also help to reduce the heat in our urban city.

• Rejuvenate Urban Parks and Enliven our Streetscape

Also through the 4 years, NParks have been carried our plans to enhance and rejuvenate our Garden City by enlivening our streetscape, having more species of greenery than only those that provide shades. Trees that are vulnerable to storms are also replaced. Under this initiative, construction of new parks and re-development of existing parks was also carried  out so that 6 themes of park was created. The themes include : city, heritage, coastal, community, nature and riverine. This aims to enhance visitor experience and also attract visitors from all over Singapore.

• Enhance Competencies and Productivity of our Landscape and Horticulture Industry

Other than focusing on the greenery is Singapore, NParks also did not neglect that the landscape industry also requires development. Training and certification of the workforce was implemented to ensure that competencies in the workforce to develop our future green initiatives. Industry standards was also set and implemented to ensure a certain quality of work was done. Automated machines was also introduced to increase the productivity of the industry.

• Engage and Inspire Communities to co-create a Greener Singapore

In order to promote community ownership, to instill the passion for greening efforts, NParks has spearheaded a few programmes such as Plant-A-Tree, Garden City Fund and other outreach activities. One of the programme is called Community in Bloom where it encourage the people to all gather and grow their own community gardens. NParks also establishes nature-themed programs to reach out to the people, to reconnect them with the nature environment.  These programs includes bird watching, and photography, that can be done at all our nature reserves. NParks also actively work with volunteers, schools, corporations and NGOs to increase their reach, especially to the younger generation. In 2013, programs were even extended to preschoolers.

• Enrich Biodiversity in our Urban Environment

Funds are also channeled to several plans to enrich our biodiversity other than the usual enhancement and monitor of the biodiversity. Reforestation works are carried out in Mandai and some parts of Palau Ubin. This not only aims to help our native wildlife by improving their habitats, it also seeks to restore the native trees that was once abundant. Other measures includes having biodiversity to monitor the health of the nature reserves and also some construction works. (Eg, new Visitor Centre in Sungei Buloh Wetland in 2012 and the Eco link between Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Central  Catchment Nature Reserves in 2013)

Note: All the above information are from the Singapore budget 2010,2011, 2012 and 2013 that is published by the Ministry of Finance.

In addition, NParks also established the Garden City Funds, a registered and independent charity that raise donation from corporations, organisations and individuals to help fund the project they supports. Some of the projects they support includes the Orchid Conservation Fund and Plant-A-Tree Programme.