Introduction
1 100,000 Native Plants @ South West - Rooted in Your Community is a community gardening initiative by South West Community Development Council (CDC), in partnership with community and corporate partners, to reinstate the natural heritage of Singapore by planting 100,000 native plants in the South West District. The effort is one which involves the ownership and partnership with all who live, work and play in the District.
Vision
2 To root the community to live, work and play together in the South West District, by enriching our environment and enhancing our quality of life towards a celebration and appreciation of our tropical environs.
Objectives
3 The objectives of 100,000 Native Plants @ South West are as follow:
- To engage the community;
- To provide the essential – shade;
- To sustain the ecosystem and help fight climate change; and
- To reconnect with our natural heritage through the knowledge of native plants.
3Ps Partnership
4 Instrumental to the success of the initiative is the 3Ps partnership:
- Private Sector (Corporate Partners);
- Public bodies (community sector); and
- People (which includes students, grassroots and homemakers).
A. Private Sector
5 Corporate companies are invited to join in the funding of the project giving their employees a premium chance to spearhead their organisation's involvement in preserving our natural heritage, more importantly towards their goal of corporate social responsibility.
6 From a corporate point of view, the involvement of an organisation brings forth their commitment to community causes. This multi-dimensional initiative is a first-of-its-kind allowing you an opportunity to lead by engagement and set an example for other corporate companies to follow.
B. Public Agencies
7 Public agencies, such as the National Parks Board (NParks), Alexandra Hospital (AH), Town Councils and schools, are engaged in helping to shape the efforts of the community gardens.
C. People
8 Students, grassroots organisations (GROs) and residents are encouraged to collaborate and volunteer their efforts in setting up community gardens so as to contribute to the environment of South West District. By partnering, residents also experience being involved and contributing to their neighbourhood's development. The programme helps to dismiss the wait and see attitude and instead get everyone involved on a weekly/bi-weekly or monthly basis. This form of regularity also promotes neighbourly and community bonding and gives opportunities for sharing and learning to occur while engaging in a simple activity such as care for trees/plants.
9 Community involvement, in the form of grassroots organisations and schools, is essential in contributing to the sustenance of the programme, and also our native plants.
Benefits
10 The benefits of this programme cover many areas:
- Medicinal;
- Educational;
- Historical;
- Botanical; and
- One that promotes multicultural understanding through community bonding.
11 Introducing native plants will not only inform our children and youths, but also attract the type of butterflies, flowers and birds that were always symbiotically connected to such trees, in the past. They include fruiting trees as well as the historically well known Changi, Tembusu, Tampinis and Kranji trees. It is a move to educate Singaporeans on how these plants gave birth to the names of places we are so familiar with.
Soft Launch
12 The planting of the native plants commenced on Sunday, 27 May 2006. The choice of plant species and the location for planting is in consultation with veteran botanists familiar with the history and the region, and the steward community groups. As the species are native to the land, their planting is natural to the soil and hence it is automatically an intrinsic enrichment from the botanical angle.
Official Launch
13 An official launch event was held on Sunday, 8 July 2007 at Stagmont Park to acknowledge the community-corporate partnerships towards the creation of a greener and better South West District. Dr Amy Khor, Mayor of South West District and Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources was the Guest of Honour (GOH).
14 Highlights of the launch included:
- 100,000 Native Plants @ South West ShowGarden
A 100,000 Native Plants ShowGarden was unveiled, measuring 12m by 10m in the shape of the South West District, and showcasing more than 2,200 representative native species that are unique from the existing community gardens in the South West District, as well useful species such as Citronella, to repel mosquitoes and stem dengue breeding. To commemorate Shell Companies in Singapore for their sponsorship and strong support, part of the ShowGarden was dedicated to their offshore island in the South West District – Pulau Bukom.
- Launch of ShowGarden Adoption Programme
The ShowGarden Adoption Programme was a tie-up with community organisations
and agencies i.e. Yew Tee Zone ‘9’ RC, Kranji Primary School and Regent Secondary School where community leaders, residents and students pledge to take care of the native plants, as well as to organise regular meaningful activities / tours / lessons. Volunteers under the Adoption Programme would also undergo a training conducted by NParks and NEA (SWRO) to learn more about proper and mozzie-free gardening tips. These ‘ShowGarden Guides’ will serve to spread the message to their friends and/or family members.
15 The official launch of 100,000 Native Plants @ South West garnered a total of seven print and broadcast media (refer to attached news clippings) which covered the overwhelming support that the initiative has received from both community and corporate organizations, with more than 40,000 native species taken root since its soft launch a year ago. To date, there are a total of 19 community gardens located around the South West District under the programme.
Conclusion
16 Planting 100,000 native plants over three years in public spaces and the heartland, is a genuine effort by all – the public bodies, the people and the private sector. While the main vision of this programme is to enrich our environment so as to make our backyard meaningful for future generations, it is really an enhanced quality of life for all that survives most.
17 The Singapore that is home to Singaporeans will only be fully restored when nurtured by its own people, with their own hands. Planting a tree is just one single step in this direction. South West CDC embarks on this programme, 100,000 Native Plants @ South West - Rooted in Your Community to draw the link for Singaporeans on knowing the history, and biodiversity value of our native trees and plants. In so doing, it hopes to build community bonding and cohesion so all can work, play and live together, in a sustainable manner.
Criteria For Application For Funding:
The garden has to be in a common area accessible to the public;
The collaboration has to be between two or more parties, ie, corporations, schools or GROs; and
The funds can only be used for the purchase of plants
HOW TO START A COMMUNITY GARDEN
Click here for application form.
SUBMIT YOUR QUARTERLY REPORT for 100,000 NATIVE PLANTS @ SOUTH WEST HERE
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