Sustainability Report
Our Sustainability Commitment
NParks is committed to conserving nature and biodiversity, nurturing greater community stewardship, and building capabilities within the organisation and industry to uphold Singapore’s reputation and standing as we transform into a City in Nature. In February 2021, the Government unveiled the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a whole-of-nation movement to advance the national agenda on sustainable development. City in Nature, as one of the five key pillars of the Green Plan, will create a green, liveable and sustainable home for Singaporeans.
Our Sustainability Strategies
Sustaining our City in Nature
Creating the best possible living environment through excellence in nature conservation, greenery and recreation.
Nurturing Communities
Strengthening Singapore’s greenery and biodiversity in partnership with the community.
Creating a Great workplace
Developing our staff and taking care of their well-being
Sustaining our City in Nature
Conserving and Extending
Singapore’s Natural Capital
NParks is responsible for maintaining and enhancing Singapore’s greenery for future generations. Our Nature Reserves safeguard primary and secondary rainforests which are core habitats for native biodiversity. They are also primary providers of ecosystem services like clean air and water. Nature parks have been established on the margins of the Nature Reserves, serving as complementary habitats and buffers. These buffers provide expanded habitats for Singapore’s native flora and fauna beyond the Nature Reserves, and also provide spaces for nature-based recreation.
In April 2022, the establishment of a new Labrador Nature Park Network was announced. The network will comprise more than 200 ha of green spaces, or almost 1.5 times the size of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. In November 2022, NParks opened Rifle Range Nature Park which serves as a green buffer to protect Bukit Timah Nature Reserve from edge effects and abutting developments. Its opening completes the Central Nature Park Network around the nature reserve. NParks will continue to grow its network of nature parks, which will help conserve and enhance natural carbon sinks across the island.
Strengthening Connectivity
between Green Spaces
NParks will continue to expand our islandwide connectivity networks so that Singaporeans will have greater access to green spaces near their homes. Today, over 380 km of park connectors have been established – more than seven times the length of Singapore from East to West. The Rail Corridor (North) was opened in February 2023, and is part of overall plans to curate a 360 km islandwide network of recreational routes, which will contribute towards enabling every household to live within a 10-minute walk to a park by 2030.
The Ecological Profiling Exercise (EPE) was launched in 2021 to study the ecological profile of green spaces in Singapore, and to better understand their role in strengthening ecological connectivity. Through the EPE, NParks has identified four new ecological corridors around northern, northwestern and northeastern Singapore at Khatib, Kranji, Lim Chu Kang and Seletar (see Figure 1). With the identification of these new ecological corridors, NParks will ensure that key biodiversity areas, as well as ecological connectivity, will be maintained when development is needed at existing green spaces within the ecological corridors. This is done by implementing measures to support the ecological connectivity, including retaining key existing forested patches, or by incorporating nature parks, park connectors or Nature Ways within the development to facilitate ecological connectivity. NParks has completed 190 km of Nature Ways, which mimic the multi-tiered structure of a natural forest, to better connect our green spaces for animals like birds and butterflies and also beautify our city, provide shade, cool our surroundings, and improve air quality.
NParks will also be establishing a new Khatib Nature Corridor. This allows ecological connectivity to be maintained and enhanced between the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and Khatib Bongsu Nature Park.
Figure 1: Map showing islandwide ecological connections, as identified through NParks’ EPE.
Intensifying Nature in
Gardens and Parks
More than 40 percent of Singapore is covered in greenery, in the form of Nature Reserves, parks, gardens, roadside greenery, skyrise greenery and vacant statelands. NParks will be developing and redeveloping more than 300 ha of new and redeveloped parks which will feature more lush vegetation and natural landscapes by 2026, allowing Singaporeans to benefit from greater access to nature and its associated benefits on health and well-being.
The waterbodies within our gardens and parks will also be naturalised where possible, like how we have done so in BishanAng Mo Kio Park and Jurong Lake Gardens. In addition, NParks is restoring mangroves in parks along Singapore’s coasts, such as Kranji Coastal Nature Park. These mangroves will function in tandem with engineering solutions to serve as coastal protection measures, to mitigate the effects of erosion brought about by storm surges and rising sea levels. NParks will continue to incorporate naturebased solutions in its coastal and riverine parks, to help build resilience against sea-level rise and inland flooding.
Beyond these, NParks will establish more contemplative landscapes in gardens and parks, which can be programmed for seniors and children as well as cater to diverse conditions such as dementia and mood disorders. In addition, more Nature Playgardens with biophilic elements and natural materials will be introduced, for the young to engage in child-directed spontaneous play.
To allow more people to reap the benefits of nature, we will also create more contemplative landscapes within our urban spaces.
A concrete drain leading from Yuan Ching Road to Jurong Lake has been naturalised into a series of streams known as Neram Streams that channel stormwater runoff from the surrounding area.
Restoring Nature into the
Urban Landscape
We have also pressed on with efforts to restore nature into our urban landscape. In FY2022, we restored and enhanced over 30 ha of forest, coastal, and marine habitats, well ahead of the target to do so by 2030. Ongoing habitat restoration and species recovery efforts have enabled Singaporeans to encounter and enjoy once-rare species of plants and animals in our green spaces, such as the Singapore Ginger (Zingiber singapurense) and the Sunda Slow Loris (Nycticebus coucang).
Under NParks’ Species Recovery Programme, we will continue to increase recovery efforts for 160 species by 2030 as a key part of NParks’ efforts to strengthen the conservation of Singapore’s native flora and fauna.
We will also continue to promote the implementation of skyrise greenery (including vertical green walls, green roofs, and rooftop gardens) to building owners and continue to green up covered linkways with trellis plantings, while enhancing landscape plantings at MRT stations. We will continue to intensify our greening efforts in Singapore’s industrial estates as well, which are currently among the hotter areas on the island. NParks is working with various stakeholders to increase the total number of trees in industrial estates, including Jurong Island, to almost three times as many, from nearly 90,000 trees to about 260,000 trees by 2030.
Nurturing Communities
Strengthening Community Stewardship
The support and involvement of the community are key to the success of our City in Nature vision. With the relaxation of Covid-19 measures, we have resumed many of our physical events to engage the community. Singapore Garden Festival 2022 was held along Orchard Road at ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City as well as Singapore Botanic Gardens
As part of the Singapore Green Plan conversations to engage Singaporeans on sustainable development, five webinars and three workshops under the City in Nature Conversations initiative were organised between November 2021 to January 2023. Covering a variety of topics, the webinars have garnered over 7,000 views to date. Through the workshops, close to 50 members of the public, including youths, came together to brainstorm and work on projects to transform Singapore into a City in Nature.
Since the launch of the OneMillionTrees movement in 2020 to plant a million more trees across Singapore by 2030, NParks has worked closely with its key partners including NParks volunteers in the Friends of the Parks communities, Community in Nature schools, Community in Bloom (CIB) gardeners, nature groups, corporate partners, other organisations, as well as members of the public to champion initiatives surrounding the tree planting efforts. More than 75,000 members of the community have joined us in tree-planting activities across the island, some of whom have also been involved in the processes leading up to and following tree planting. For instance, over 600 native tree saplings and 1,500 native seeds have been delivered to community nurseries in 43 schools. These plants will be nurtured within the school compounds and planted across Singapore when matured.
Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Ministry of National Development Sim Ann (right) admires the floral displays at ION Orchard, part of the Singapore Garden Festival that returned after a four-year hiatus.
The nationwide CIB gardening movement aims to bring residents together to foster community spirit and active stewardship of our City in Nature. Today, there are more than 1,900 community gardens across Singapore, set up and managed by our community gardeners. NParks will continue to facilitate the set-up of CIB gardens across Singapore to meet the target of 3,000 CIB gardens by 2030.
Social Enterprise Community Urban Farms (SECUFs) aim to further promote edibles gardening in the community, and also provide micro-employment and volunteering opportunities to residents, especially seniors and the less privileged. In October 2022, NParks awarded the tender for the first SECUF site at West Coast Park to City Sprouts.
To extend our reach and engagement touchpoints further into the community to grow a network of nature-centric volunteers at the grassroots level, NParks launched the Nature Kakis Network in January 2023. The Nature Kakis Network is a new touchpoint centred at the heart of local communities that brings together passionate like-minded individuals to become stewards of nature. This follows the first group of Nature Kakis established in April 2022, which comprises volunteers from the Boon Lay area. Between January and March 2023, NParks intensively engaged various grassroots organisations and volunteers to encourage new Nature Kakis Chapters to be formed. Interested constituencies included Bukit Gombak, Moulmein-Cairnhill, Nee Soon South, Pasir Ris Central and Punggol. NParks will continue to facilitate the interests from the community and work towards establishing new Nature Kakis Chapters.
Creating a Great Workplace
Learning and
development
Staff are encouraged to grow their professionalism, build capabilities and provide service excellence. NParks develops staff through a competency development framework focusing on business, operational and people excellence.
CUGE and professional certification bodies conduct in-depth training for operational staff, including formulating a specialised roadmap to develop professional arborist competency.
Corporate staff can get certified by industry-recognised agencies such as the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and Institute for Human Resource (HR) Professionals.
HR has also rolled out the refreshed NParks Competency Framework to guide staff in identifying suitable development opportunities for upskilling and reskilling.
Expanded Vocational
and Skills Allowance
Framework
To encourage officers to deepen their professional expertise in NParks’ core job areas and facilitate greater deployability of staff, officers who possess certifications recognised under NParks’ Vocational and Skills Allowance Framework are eligible for a monthly allowance.
The list of certifications that qualify officers for the allowance also includes certifications such as those in Field Epidemiology (Veterinary & Animal Health) and Advanced Animal Welfare & Behaviour (Cat and Dog).
Competency-Based
Remuneration
We will continue to professionalise the role of an NParks officer and improve the attractiveness of a career in NParks. Officers’ skills and competencies will be recognised by appropriate progression opportunities and remuneration. We will also continue to support and encourage continuous movement of officers (horizontal as well as vertical) throughout their career. Officers will be encouraged to pick up additional competencies relevant to NParks’ work, which will be supported by the enhanced vocational allowance framework.
Staff Well Being
The Staff Well-Being Committee (SWBC) works with the Human Resource branch and Staff Union to organise activities that engage our workforce. There are three sub-committees:
Healthy Lifestyle
Promotes active and healthy living by encouraging staff to participate in sports interest groups and through lunchtime talks.
Social & Recreation
Provides avenues for self-improvement and learning while networking with others through learning journeys and workshops.
Kindness Movement
Nurtures a culture of kindness, compassion and volunteerism among staff for the less privileged in our society.
In FY2022, as Covid-19 Safe Management Measures started to ease up, more in-person activities were organised for staff to bond. These include holding our first Year-End-Get-Together after a three-year hiatus where staff bonded over food, games and activities.
About 30 events were carried out in FY2022. Some of the events that were organised aimed to encourage across the board participation, including sports interest groups, Round Island Challenge Virtual Cycle 2022, health screening, food collection drive, and lunch food trucks.
As staff can telecommute on certain days each week, the committee continued to deliver some of these programmes and activities on e-platforms as well, which helped to engage staff while they worked from home. Some of these activities planned were related to ensuring staff mental and physical well-being.
Recognition and Awards
Each year, deserving staff are recognised for their exemplary service and work via the Excellent Service Award and Divisional Star Award presented at the annual Y.E.O.P! Service Excellence Forum organised by the Y.E.O.P! Committee, a cross-divisional team that engages our officers to contribute to NParks’ service vision. In 2022, 36 staff were commended for providing excellent service to internal and external customers.
This past year, 200 staff received their Long Service Award at the Staff Appreciation Award Ceremony held in March 2023 for their contributions towards building and caring for our City in Nature.
Staff are encouraged to pick up new skills or earn professional certification to build up capabilities and better themselves for new work challenges.
As staff can telecommute on certain days of the week, they can also enjoy more time with their family, allowing for a stronger worklife balance.