Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, “That the Bill be read a second time.”

2. Sir, Singapore is a densely built city state. Yet, it is also well known internationally as a garden city. The clean and green living environment has not come about by chance. It is the result of our deliberate efforts and commitment in planting trees and conserving nature over many years.

3. Looking ahead, with an expanding economy and growing population, we will have more people in our estates, more cars on our roads, and more buildings on our small island of Singapore. Our efforts in keeping Singapore green will only get more challenging.

4. The passing of this Bill will strengthen our efforts with these improved provisions:

First, besides protecting mature trees in Tree Conservation Areas, we will be able to conserve mature greenery along roads by designating selected roads as Heritage Roads;

Second, we will be able to impose heavier penalties for offences committed in our National Parks, Nature Reserves and Tree Conservation Areas;

Third, the effectiveness of NParks will be enhanced by formalizing its regulatory functions and streamlining two existing Acts relating to greenery.

5. Sir, I will now elaborate on the key features of the Bill.

Conserving Mature Greenery along Heritage Roads

6. First, conserving mature greenery along Heritage Roads. Sir, roadside greenery is an important feature of our Garden City. Green streetscapes that have been nurtured over many years soften the hard effect of large physical structures and buildings to create a garden-like ambience in our city. This is especially so for roads lined with tall “green walls” of mature trees and multi-layered vegetation. One good example is South Buona Vista Road. Other examples would include Mount Pleasant Road, Mandai Road, Lim Chu Kang Road, and Arcadia Road.

7. When the lands along these roads are developed, even though the trees and greenery at the green verges of these roads are protected under existing provisions of the Parks and Trees Act, the mature greenery behind these green verges are not. The Bill therefore seeks to enable the Minister to designate, by gazette, such roads as Heritage Roads, to conserve green buffers of up to 10-metre depth along both sides of these roads. The Bill will empower NParks to access and maintain these green buffers, and regulate works and activities to protect them.

8. The green buffer requirement will only be applied to state lands, but not to existing private lands along the Heritage Roads. However, when existing state lands along these Heritage Roads are subsequently sold under the Government’s Land Sales Programme, the green buffer requirement will continue to be applied despite the change to private landownership.

Heavier Penalties

9. Next, increasing the penalty for cutting any tree with a girth exceeding 1 metre within a designated Tree Conservation Area or a vacant land without permission, from the current $10,000 to $50,000.

10. Sir, this offence is usually committed by developers and contractors in the course of construction works. The current $10,000 maximum fine has not been revised since 1994 and is no longer as effective as before. Would-be offenders might choose to pay the fines than incur additional costs to conserve the trees. The Bill therefore proposes to increase the maximum fine to $50,000 to deter future offences.

11. The maximum fines for offences committed in the National Parks and Nature Reserves will also be raised from $10,000 to $50,000 to reflect the comparative seriousness of these offences. The Bill will also introduce provisions to enable NParks to recover the value of any destroyed or damaged tree or plant from the offender. In assessing the value of a destroyed or damaged tree, factors such as the species, size, age, location and condition of the tree and its replacement cost are considered.

Formalization of NParks’ Regulatory Functions and Streamlining of existing Acts

12. Last but not least, this Bill serves to formalize the regulatory functions currently performed by NParks. It will also serve to streamline two existing pieces of legislation that govern the protection, provision and maintenance of greenery in Singapore.

13. Sir, the National Parks Act of 1996 covers the National Parks Board’s corporate functions and its regulatory powers for the Nature Reserves, public parks, and the two National Parks - Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park. The Parks and Trees Act of 1975 covers NParks’ management functions and regulatory powers for public parks, roadside greenery and the gazetted Tree Conservation Areas. There are overlaps in the provisions of the two Acts. We therefore propose to streamline these two Acts.

Streamlining the two Acts

14. The National Parks Act, to be re-named the National Parks Board Act, will continue to provide for NParks’ corporate and statutory functions in managing the National Parks, the Nature Reserves, public parks and greenery.

15. The existing Parks and Trees Act will be repealed and replaced by a new Parks and Trees Act after the passage of this Bill. This new legislation will cover greenery conservation and regulatory powers related to the Nature Reserves, National Parks and public parks. Existing provisions for Tree Conservation Areas will be retained. Some provisions now in the National Parks Act, including those enabling the Minister to designate areas as National Parks and Nature Reserves, will be transferred to this new Parks and Trees Act.

16. The passage of this Bill will also give NParks the necessary statutory powers to carry out its greenery regulatory functions directly, instead of relying on the approval processes of other authorities, including URA’s development control and BCA’s building control processes. The Bill therefore seeks to require Qualified Persons – architects and engineers responsible for development projects – to formally submit development and building plans to NParks as well for approval of the greenery provision. This should not result in additional work for the developers, as they will submit these plans electronically as usual to the various regulatory authorities through CORENET.

Implementation of the Bill

17. Sir, in preparing this Bill, NParks has consulted the various industry stakeholders including the Singapore Institute of Architects, Institute of Engineers Singapore and Real Estate Developers Association of Singapore. This Bill, if passed by this House, is targeted to come into effect in May this year.

18. Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

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