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GPS-linked saplings for Kiara park

For a greener world: Staff and industry partners of KidZania Kuala Lumpur, together with winners of the Kids for a Greener World 2013 Competition, posing for a group photograph.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur, the indoor educational and entertainment theme park, planted the first 100 GPS-linked trees in Malaysia in a continued effort towards sustaining the environment.

The GPS-linked tree saplings were planted in Taman Rimba Kiara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

Last year, KidZania Kuala Lumpur planted 100 tree saplings in a community park in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, marking the second consecutive year that KidZania Kuala Lumpur hosted this tree-planting exercise.

The GPS-linked trees will be able to capture high quality photographs of the trees, which will then be linked directly to Google Earth.

Apart from that, the system will also capture information such as the species and height of the tree when it was planted.

All these details will also be accessible via Google Earth.

The trees that are being planted are rare species and this system allows for its growth to be monitored and tracked. Updated photographs showing the tree growing at different times, for example five years after being planted or 20 years after being planted, will be uploaded on to Google Earth.

The 100 trees planted by KidZania Kuala Lumpur are the first such trees to utilise this technology in Malaysia.

The guest of honour, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) director-general Datuk Salleh Yusup, officiated at the tree-planting exercise by planting the first sapling.

He was assisted by Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd managing director and chief executive officer Tunku Datuk Ahmad Burhanuddin Tunku Adnan, who is also KidZania Malaysia governor.

The 99 other saplings, comprising Shorea Sumatrana, Pteleocarpa Lampoya, Shorea Roxburghii, Garcinia Hombroniana, Garcinia Cowaand Flacourtia Inermis, were later planted by staff from Themed Attractions and Resorts as well as staff and industry partners of KidZania Kuala Lumpur.

The trees are expected to reach maturity after 30 years and will benefit the surrounding community.

One of the benefits is that the trees will serve as carbon sinks which will help in reducing the carbon footprint of the area.

Other benefits include offering medicinal value, beautifying the park and complementing the surrounding scenery.

Tunku Ahmad Burhanuddin said, “KidZania Kuala Lumpur is proud to be a part of a movement that is looking out for the environment. As an educational and entertainment theme park for children, we have a responsibility to set examplary actions that the children can emulate. We are also delighted to be the first to implement the technology of GPS-linked trees.”

Also present at the tree-planting ceremony were Team 5E-1 from Sekolah Kebangsaan Damansara Jaya 2, winners of the Kids for a Greener World 2013 Competition.

They are Anis Suhaila Mohd Taufik, Haris Zaim Hairi, Ahmad Danish Shamsuddin, Ahmad Zaidam Fadhullah, Syed Yusuf Syed Nasurudin, Danielle Lim, Vennikka Rajendran, Jeremy Marcus, Shellahana and Syed Yahya.

The inter-school art competition was hosted by KidZania Kuala Lumpur to inspire environmentally sustainable ideas outside of the park in the form of green initiative projects.

The winners were awarded at the tree-planting ceremony and will be treated to a trip to KidZania Kuala Lumpur as well as KidZania merchandise.