Ten diverse projects, which include six parks and gardens and four developments, have been awarded under the Landscape Excellence Assessment Framework (LEAF) certification scheme for 2021, the National Parks Board (NParks) announced on Apr 25.

The projects awarded consist of Thomson Nature Park, Botanic Gardens’ Gallop Extension, Yunnan Garden, Tropical Montane Orchidetum, Active Garden, The Garden Residences, Stars of Kovan, Fort Siloso Heritage Park, St. Andrew’s Nursing Home Buangkok and Sentosa Cove Resort Management.

LEAF serves to acknowledge and encourage organisations to take effort to restore nature into the built environment, which helps bring greenery closer to Singaporeans’ everyday lives, NParks said in a press release.

The submissions, based on evaluation by LEAF’s assessors and evaluation panel, were awarded within the tiers of platinum, gold, silver, or certified. 

The certification will be valid for five years, after which a reassessment would need to be carried out to ensure that the projects continue to maintain and manage their green areas.

Amongst the awardees, the Gallop Extension and Thomson Nature Park were given the platinum certification, the highest achievement under LEAF.

A key highlight of the Gallop Extension was how it leveraged existing structures and surrounding undulating topography to create a pleasing and soothing picturesque landscape, said NParks.

As for Thomson Nature Park, it lauded the strong efforts to highlight and conserve existing trees, such as designing pathways around existing trees.

Restoring nature will mitigate the harshness of the urban environment and bring the therapeutic effects of greenery directly to homes and workplaces, contributing to our City in Nature vision, NParks said in the release.