Establish a ‘native treebank’, don't lose pockets of greenery - Landscape expert

KUALA LUMPUR - The government has been advised to establish a native tree bank as a strategic step not only in mitigating climate change but also to provide a sustainable solution to the issue of fallen trees.

Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia (ILAM) president Assoc Prof Dr Nor Atiah Ismail said the specialty of local trees lies in its resilience, adaptation to weather, quality of flora and fauna and environmental ecology, which can reduce the risk of fallen trees threatening public safety and property damage.

"With the treebank (when) any untoward incident occurs, tree replacement can be done and solve the issue of high-risk trees in Kuala Lumpur. So, we need native species trees and preferably that the species come from our own forests.

"The use of internal trees (species native to country) is (however) insufficient because healthy and beautiful trees have been exported to Singapore while we receive trees that are said to be cheap from Thailand, for example the (smallish) bucida tree, but they are not suitable for the ecology of our country because of the aggressive nature of their roots,” she said as a guest on the ‘Reaksi’ programme on Bernama Radio recently.

According to Nor Atiah, in dealing with the issue of fallen trees especially around the federal capital, Kuala Lumpur City Hall in particular needs to take decisive action by visually inspecting trees to identify the condition and assess the level of tree health.

"In Kuala Lumpur, trees are located between tall buildings. When the wind is strong, the buildings create a wind tunnel and causes trees to fall, especially if they are old and the roots have decayed.”

She said the inspection can be done visually such as lots of fallen leaves, yellowing, broken twigs or branches, cracked trees or liquid oozing out of the roots and based on such an analysis, a decision needs to be made whether the tree in question needs to be treated or proposed to be cut down.

"We should actually have a data base of which areas need replacement, mitigation and we ought to be constantly inspecting and analysing from time to time,” she said, insisting that every tree cut down needs to be replaced to ensure ecological balance.

Nor Atiah also expressed her consternation at the fact that the nation’s capital only has 10 per cent of greenery which is an insufficient network compared to Putrajaya which has 30 to 40 percent of foliage.

"With a higher capacity of people (high density) and the existing multi-high rise buildings, that amount (10 per cent trees) is not enough. Since this city is full of buildings, we have to look at areas that are pocket spaces that can be used as lush, green lungs.”

Nor Atiah said policy involvement from the government is a good thing and must be done so that the environment and tree cover are in good condition and resilient.

On May 15, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to plant 100 new trees to replace every tree that has to be cut down.