Our planet is suffering from severe biodiversity loss, a major existential risk that can cripple future generations. Homes of flora and fauna across the planet are wiped out because of human disturbance and climate change.
Reported by Save the Children Fund, 2021

While the responsibility to conserve the environment lies within every individual, the onus is unequivocally more urgent with larger organisations. Tech giants like Microsoft and Apple are walking their big talk with the former planning to remove the amount of carbon it has emitted since the organisation was founded. Apple on the other hand, has set a goal for its entire supply chain to be carbon neutral by 2030.
This doesn’t have to be a pipedream. For property developer Sime Darby Property (SDP), the walk begins with the reimagination of its townships, starting with the City of Elmina. Its Group Managing Director Dato’ Azmir Merican says that the key to progressing sustainably is for new developments to adopt landscape strategies that prioritise biodiversity conservation and restoration.

Dato’ Azmir Merican
Group Managing Director, Sime Darby Property

Dr. Dzaeman Dzulkifli Executive Director, Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre


The Journey To A Sustainable Future
01
Zero Primary-Rainforest Removal Policy
02
A Tree-for-Tree replacement policy and planting of endangered species target across all its developments
For over a decade, SDP has been tracking its effort of tree planting across its developments. The company targets to achieve a 1:1 tree replacement policy when converting oil-palm plantations to township developments, including the planting of Endangered, Rare and Threatened (ERT) species of trees which constitutes a minimum target of 10% of trees planted.
To date, the company has successfully planted more than 122,000 trees, including more than 22,000 trees that are assessed as ERT species under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, which exceeds SDP’s current targets.
03
Good biodiversity practices
SDP’s good biodiversity practices start with a strategic ambition that is translated onto its landscape plan, to foster a functional ecosystem within the township as it is developed. The company practises multi-species planting to boost flora diversity, which further provides a variety resources for a diverse urban wildlife, such as birds and insects, creating a safe environment and a thriving habitat.
The wildlife will then support other ecosystem services including pollination, seed dispersal; while acting as a biological control agent in an urban environment. By focusing on the aesthetics and monoculture species that ensures uniformity, planting diverse species of native trees also helps combat heat-island effects better (high temperatures in urban spaces), and further acts as a mitigation strategy against climate change impacts.
In order to monitor ecosystem benefits sustained by the green areas within the urban landscape, SDP has conducted biodiversity inventories within the City of Elmina in collaboration with the Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre (TRCRC). The company has published the “Malaysian Threatened and Rare Tree Identification and Landscape Guideline†and prepared (unpublished) a “Wetlands Construction and Maintenance Guideline†for adoption and implementation to ensure good biodiversity practices across its developments.
03
Good biodiversity practices
04
A dedicated rainforest, research and conservation centre



05
Strategic partnership with an NGO specialising in conservation
06
Continuous community engagement and education






Realising the vision of a green city is not without challenges. Multiple stakeholders and authorities had to be engaged and were invited to be on board with the conception of ERKC as it was a pilot project of this nature by a property developer.
On top of these, funding and sourcing for a suitable partner to run the operations were challenges that the property developer has taken in its stride.
The collaborative partnership
SDP partnered up with TRCRC, a leading non-profit and industry expert on tropical rainforest conservation and ecology. TRCRC has a successful track record on conservation action, leading landscape-wide protection and restoration projects throughout the country. It is an internationally recognised organisation working on safeguarding Malaysia’s rainforest. TRCRC believes in working on the ground in order to address the critical rate of biodiversity loss – one of the most pressing issues facing today’s society.
Long-term partnerships strengthen the means of implementing more meaningful commitments to ecologically sound sustainability practices. The collaborative partnership, that places the environment at the core, highlights both organisation’s shared values in the conservation of biodiversity.
The collaborative partnership

Dr. Dzaeman Dzulkifli
Executive Director, Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre
TRCRC is dedicated to community-powered conservation and has been running public outreach programmes at the ERKC, with funding from SDP’s philanthropic arm, Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD). With long-term support from YSD, TRCRC has rehabilitated, restored and enriched around 45 hectares of degraded ecosystems across the country.
YSD has committed to helping TRCRC build up the capacity to not only carry out conservation and restoration work, but also to conduct knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing with other stakeholders to ensure that more individuals and organisations can effectively conduct restoration programmes of their own.
A Conservation Haven,
In The Making

Today, TRCRC has successfully propagated a total of 187 species of plants at ELCN, including over 35,000 seeds sowed and more than 10,000 tree saplings stored in its holding area. TRCRC’s conservation efforts at the ELCN underpin an essential step in maintaining green landscapes in the future.
The City of Elmina aims to plant a total of 210,000 trees throughout the township by 2040, with 10% or 21,000 of them being IUCN trees. To date, the township has successfully planted over 41,000 trees including 5,691 IUCN trees.
Across all its townships, SDP has planted over 116,000 trees within the past decade to help mitigate the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. Based on an estimate going back as far as 1972 when the company’s first township was being developed, the number of trees planted could reach as high as half a million trees.

Dato’ Azmir Merican
Group Managing Director, Sime Darby Property
Join us to make a change.