Singapore — “Tree planting is a lot of hard work!” said local actress and host Joanne Peh after her first encounter planting trees to help protect the coastline from erosion.
Ms Peh took her daughter for an educational visit to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and learnt “why it’s important to conserve wetland areas that don’t look like they do much.”
“While the ants weren’t very happy when we were digging up the soil, we kept reassuring them that we’re building them homes for their future generations (and ours too!),” said Ms Peh in a Facebook post on Friday (Dec 17).
Through their endeavour, the duo discovered that wetlands provide important rest and feeding grounds for birds migrating from Alaska, Russia and China to escape the winter season.
“These birds travel long distances, so just imagine if you’re on a road trip and thought your next rest and refuel station was five kilometres away only to arrive and find the place demolished,” said Ms Peh in an analogy.
“You’re tired, hungry and have run out of food, but your final destination is still a distance away; what’s likely to happen?”
She highlighted that the reserve they visited is Singapore’s first ASEAN heritage park and an important conservation site.
“It’s always great to see regular visitors make it back yearly through the tags that have been placed on their legs,” she added, referring to the migratory birds.
The National Parks Board (NParks) has a OneMillionTrees movement that aims to restore nature back into Singapore by planting a million trees over the next year.
The initiative is part of the City in Nature programme, a key pillar under the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
NParks highlighted that community is key to the success of the movement, urging others to partake in the conservations efforts.
Members of the public are invited to join the movement, which currently has achieved planting 294,286 trees across the country. /TISG
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