Opening of Keppel Coastal Trail enhances recreational experience for visitors and ecological resilience of Labrador Nature Reserve

Published 25 Jan 2025

Singapore, 25 January 2025 – The National Parks Board (NParks) and Keppel Ltd. (Keppel) announced today that the new Keppel Coastal Trail at Labrador Nature Park is now open to the public. The trail’s development is supported by a S$1 million donation from Keppel’s philanthropic arm, Keppel Care Foundation, to the Garden City Fund.

The trail passes through the coastal beach forest habitat, located between Labrador Nature Reserve and the sea and provides visitors with a coastal view as they walk along it. As part of the trail development, the coastal beach forest has undergone active restoration under the Forest Restoration Action Plan. This helps provide a significant physical and ecological buffer for the coastal hill forest within the adjacent Labrador Nature Reserve, one of the last few remaining patches of such habitat on mainland Singapore. The trail offers a new option for nature-based recreation for visitors and more opportunities to get close to biodiversity while boosting the ecological resilience of the nature reserve. The opening of the trail and the continued habitat restoration efforts within Labrador Nature Park are part of Singapore's efforts to transform into a City in Nature, with community stewardship as a key pillar.

To mark the opening of the trail, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration Mr Desmond Lee, together with Mr Danny Teoh, Chairman of Keppel, Mr Loh Chin Hua, CEO of Keppel, and Keppel Volunteers, joined members of the community in planting 55 native coastal trees along Keppel Coastal Trail.

Strengthening the ecological resilience of Labrador Nature Reserve

Keppel Coastal Trail is home to around 100 species of trees and shrubs, including native coastal species such as Ormocarpum cochinchinense, Common Putat (Barringtonia racemosa), and Sea Mango (Cerbera manghas). These species were planted along the trail to increase sources of food and places for fauna to seek shelter. This includes pollinators and dispersers such as birds, bats, and butterflies, potentially increasing the resilience of the adjacent coastal hill forest within the nature reserve.

In 2020, Keppel pledged to donate S$3 million to plant 10,000 trees in parks and nature reserves in Singapore in support of the OneMillionTrees movement, around half of which are slated to be planted in and around Labrador Nature Reserve. As of end-2024, about 8,000 trees from Keppel’s pledge have been planted across Singapore, with around 3,800 trees planted in Labrador Nature Reserve and Labrador Nature Park, including along Keppel Coastal Trail, with the help of over 350 Keppel staff volunteers.

Enhanced recreational experience for park visitors

The 340-metre-long trail offers a serene walking experience through Labrador Nature Park, away from more active recreational areas and connects visitors to the jetty at its southern end.

It comprises two main sections, an approximately 90-metre-long elevated wheelchair-accessible boardwalk which provides unblocked views of the sea from an elevated vantage point, and a 250-metre-long rustic path, which brings visitors through a coastal beach forest habitat. Along the rustic path, three swales which serve as natural drainage solutions for the trail and complementary habitats for fauna, were designed with inputs from youths from NParks’ Youth Stewards for Nature (YSN) programme. The youths helped propose the landscape design concept for the swales, taking into consideration the background of the area and ecological and design concepts that were suitable for the site.

Interpretive signage along the trail provides visitors with information about the biodiversity that can be sighted within the park, including species such as the White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster), Paradise Tree Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi), and Painted Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis pictus). During the bird migratory season, visitors may even spot birds like the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia) or the Oriental Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus).

Mr Danny Teoh, Chairman of Keppel, said, “The Keppel Coastal Trail reflects our commitment to environmental stewardship, and serves as an important platform for preserving nature and biodiversity in Labrador Nature Reserve, while strengthening its ecological resilience. Keppel will continue to support the efforts of Singapore and the international community to address the challenges posed by climate change, including through nature-based solutions.”

“We are deeply grateful to Keppel for their generous contribution towards the development of Keppel Coastal Trail and the forest restoration efforts at Labrador Nature Reserve and Labrador Nature Park. Their support has enabled the creation of a trail that allows the community to learn about these vital coastal forests and their crucial role in mitigating climate change impacts. While this is a significant step forward, there is still much work to be done to protect and enhance our natural environment. We hope that more organisations and individuals will be inspired to step forward and play their part in leaving a living legacy for future generations," said Mr Guy Daniel Harvey-Samuel, Chairman of Garden City Fund.

Enhancing parks in the southern region to provide more nature-based recreation opportunities

The completion of the trail complements efforts to transform Labrador Nature Park into a Destination Park, with its own thematic identity and unique features. Labrador Nature Park, together with HortPark and West Coast Park, were previously identified to be enhanced into Destination Parks, and are part of a larger cluster of 13 parks in Singapore’s southwestern region. These will be enhanced to expand the variety of experiences for visitors of all ages in the Southern Ridges and west coast and offer the public greater access to recreational features set amidst nature.

One of these parks is Pasir Panjang Park, which stretches from West Coast Park to Pasir Panjang. NParks will be enhancing the park further by adding a node to the park, at the former industrial waterfront of the Pasir Panjang Power District. This new park node will complement the rejuvenation of the Power District. The node will add around 2 ha to Pasir Panjang Park, expanding it from 6 ha to 8 ha. When completed, the extended Pasir Panjang Park will link other green spaces via the Park Connector Network to Labrador Nature Park. These include West Coast Park, Jurong Lake Gardens and Jurong Central Park. NParks will be calling for the tender for the detailed design consultancy this year to welcome proposals for this park node.

These are all part of NParks’ efforts to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, where we bring people closer to nature, while bolstering the ecological resilience of our habitats.

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