PUTRAJAYA: Federal guidelines on tree management will be enforced by the National Landscape Department at the local council level following several incidents of fallen trees in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
This will be part of the National Landscape Department’s plan to play a more proactive role in managing city trees, which is currently local councils’ responsibility, said Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming.
The department already conducts frequent workshops with local and state authorities on managing trees, said Nga.
“We already have existing guidelines (on tree management) but now we want to make sure that they are also enforced when needed,” he said after the soft launch of the National Landscape Day celebrations here yesterday.
“There have also been Cabinet discussions on the findings from the Landscape Department on identifying species of trees that are suitable to be planted in cities,” he said.
Nga’s remarks follows several recent incidents of people being killed and cars being damaged in Penang and Kuala Lumpur due to old and large trees that were uprooted during turbulent storms.
In Kuala Lumpur, the local authority (DBKL) has already identified over 1,300 trees aged over 50 years old in the city, Nga said.
He added that immediate instructions have been issued to all local authorities to immediately trim any tree that is potentially dangerous.
“Currently, there are only 28 trees left to trim that have been deemed dangerous.”
Nga added that the tree that fell and killed a motorist on Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur on May 7 had already been scheduled to be trimmed that day before torrid rains caused the incident.
On a separate matter, Selangor’s waste disposal assets and infrastructure are being inspected before the state adopts the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act (Act 672), Nga said.
Act 672 makes it compulsory for solid waste separation at source into recyclables and non-recyclables. It currently only applies in Pahang, Johor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Perlis, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
