Sustainability and the City - Center for Urban Green Spaces

Greening Malaysian citiesIn step with the timesContributions of corporate organizations in greening the earthDepartment in January 1, 1996was to emphasize ‘Landscaping theNation’ initiative, following which,many nationwide tree plantingcampaigns were launched, aimingin making Malaysia a “GardenNation”. This campaign was carriedout with original targets of plantingthree million trees by the year 2000and 20 million trees by the 2020.Subsequently, in commemoratingEarth Day on April 2010, theMinistry of Natural Resource andEnvironment, Malaysia announcedthe nationwide campaign of planting26 million trees by the year 2014 tosymbolize the number of Malaysianpopulation at that time. Duringthe Urban Forestry Conference2012, organised by Forest ResearchInstitute Malaysia (FRIM) inKuching, Sarawak, the Ministry wasproud to announce that Malaysia hasachieved and further exceeded thetarget with 28 million trees planted.With the enhancement of theenvironment through urban forestryactivities such as urban greening andtree planting, Malaysian cities andurban areas would be a healthier andmore comfortable place to live in.However, tree planting will only befruitful if effective management iscarried out. Urban tree managementshould include individual plantedtrees as well as groups of treesplanted in bigger areas.There are various steps that need tobe taken by all local authorities toeffectively manage urban trees, oneof which is to adopt arboriculturalKuala Lumpur maintains its greeneries for a balanced developmentpractices. The emergence of the fieldof arboriculture is an important steptowards best practices in urban treemanagement in Malaysia. The rolesand responsibilities of arborists, theprofessionals involved in the careof urban trees are becoming moresignificant and an ArboricultureCertification Program was initiatedin May 2005.With the help from the Governmentof Denmark through a TwinningProject on Urban Forestry, thecertification program was embarkedby FRIM, Kuala Lumpur City Halland Universiti Putra Malaysia. TheArborist Certification Programis undertaken by the MalaysianSociety of Arboriculture (MSA),and conducted in affiliation andendorsement from the InternationalSociety of Arboriculture (ISA).The most explosive in term of urbangrowth, Asia will have the world’slargest urban population livingin cities. Thus, establishing andmanaging urban forests will not onlycontribute towards the conservationof natural resources but alsoprovide social benefits to the urbanpopulation.•10 urbanature