Forests, Histories, and Individuals: Reflections on Forest Conservation Workshops

An Old Tree in the Taman Tugu Trail.

Forestry is often a niche field of interest. But forests are popular. The 66-acre Taman Tugu secondary forest reserve located within urban sprawl in Kuala Lumpur is a popular destination often associated with recreational activities, a break from the hustle and bustle of  the city, to connect with an authentic nature experience. But this patch of green trees was almost gone, replaced by concrete, metal infrastructures - as a for profit theme park.

Khazanah Nasional bought over the land instead and set up an elaborate institutional mechanism by their ownership of the Taman Tugu forest area, financing the conservation projects occurring. It was relatively recent, with the forest park proposed in 2016 and opened in 2018. The total cost of the conservation project was estimated to be at RM650 million. 

It seemed to bear results: over 1,000 trees have been conserved, and 4,000 more planted from 240 native species. On the inaturalist website documenting biodiversity,  citizen science projects observing the species inhabiting the park were recorded as having numerous species of butterflies, toads and birds, ground lizards and snakes, up to the hundreds. It is clear that a robust restoration of the trees also allowed a flourishing ecosystem of fauna to inhabit and live there.  The immense value thought to be derived from the cost has no doubt attracted further “CSR contributions” from other prominent multinational corporations based in Malaysia,  particularly from CIMB Islamic, who funds Free Tree Society’s tree planting workshops at Taman Tugu, provided for free as a nature education programme.  

When Charisma Movement organised once such a session for the public back in April 2025, I went with friends who joined, also out of curiosity and to have fun, in a topically familiar field-adding to my usual Saturday routine:  spending my time around curated art spaces, environmental themed events, and ecologically lush places, wherever they might be. This is one of them, a forest surrounded by skyscrapers. 

The first session of the Nature Education Programme involved a walking trail and a guide to the various preserved indigenous tree species found in Taman Tugu. Quite remarkably, as a post-mortem of the tour, we sat down and listened to a crash course on climate change. Anthropogenic carbon emissions, Greenhouse Gases, ocean heat, melting ice caps, floods. All the sciences. The analogy of a body falling sick after a two-degree  increase above normal body temperature is used. A broader history and effects of climate change as a result of the Anthropocene, a human induced geological area, was spoken to us in an area that is a product of a regional history of the anthropocene within Malaya.  

Here within the Taman Tugu Forest Trail, we are made aware of a broader geological and temporal epoch beyond the comprehension of our human bodies insofar as our perceptive abilities dictating our understanding of time and space are of a smaller scale. It is not surprising then that such an analogy is used. For us, the human body is the measurement of our perceptive limits. 

As someone who has settled in KL for three years , Taman Tugu  is  a ‘feature’ of the city available for my exploration right away. Those who grew up in Kuala Lumpur however, may recall the gradual emergence of Taman Tugu as a forest reserve. Meanwhile, generations before us might remember Taman Tugu as a site of coloniality, where British administrators lived, and planted imported palm trees for exotic refinement. These traces of palm trees are a testament to the various historical forces shaping the land and the forest before Kuala Lumpur grew as Malaysia’s economic and commercial capital. The Indigenous tree species dated to 100 years old before restoration - are survivors of colonial deforestation. They now co-exist with these palm trees in a new ecological dynamic born out of the transnational interactions of trees and empire, a testament to the broader histories at play shaping the preserved secondary forest landscape we came to know as a harmonious place today. But it should be remembered that these forests are shaped by human touch, conflict, and resolution at broader scales. It was never just a case of individual initiative.

When you understand how the history of a park is not just shaped a priori, but subject to broader social forces, putting these things in scale, you will understand why reducing personal carbon footprint seems so insignificant when forests are being cut down for development. 

It is quite clear we are thinking of environmental conservation as a personal choice. This is reflected in how we talk about Taman Tugu, as a park that provides a recreational activity connecting with nature on a free, cool afternoon; rather than as a common resource that alleviates extreme heat in urban areas, continuing ecosystems and improving public health.

Our views are constrained by people as isolated individuals, where we are distinct from the environment - a Cartesian duality of a separation between mind and matter, extending into a distinction between human and nature, which humans interact with wildlife environments and forest parks, but do not consider ourselves to be significantly part of. Tunnel vision of habit and lifestyle changes then constrain our imagination to act. All this imposes an undue responsibility on the individual, a group of individuals. Which is why experiencing forests is popular, but forestry knowledge on maintaining the forests are left to professionals. 

We were then  guided to a tree planting workshop as our second session of the programme. It is well known that corporate team buildings flock to Free Tree Society to plant trees and engage in a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project. At first glance, it is hard to see how a tree planting workshop and Taman Tugu trail tour serve as an holistic/impactful measure, aside from stopping at raising awareness and piping superficial interest in conservation and restoration efforts. But these depend on the conversations and reflections happening itself. The idea of the workshop is to enable a garden of indigenous plant species to be planted in housing backyards:  a closed landscaped viewing, as a hobby, and as a gift to others. 

Even after Khazanah Nasional bought Taman Tugu over and turned it into a place to prevent the development of a proposed for-profit commercial theme park, marking it as a successful conservation project, failed ones with potential are overshadowed, where the forests of Bukit Kiara lost several acres to a Golf and Country Club now occupying part of their land. In the face of such socioeconomic dynamics, with development projects costing and profits of hundreds of millions, the encouragement of mere personal spending habits seemed like an insignificant move. It is clear that to even make a large-scale difference, institutional power and influence, and financial support are  needed. Within this dynamic, there is no room for individuals but people who act collectively. 

Else, how could you even seek to change a macro-history by micro action alone? 

The acknowledgement of codependency is the first step, to acknowledging a commons that needs to be preserved collectively by mixing of policy, commercial and habits, not by isolated individual action in consumer spending and habitats. Our common reliance on the green lung of the city providing shade, cooling and health benefits for all needs to be acknowledged, rather than just viewing it as a site for recreation on a free afternoon. In short, forest conservations need a collective, group lens. 

That’s where broader conservation projects requiring resources and dedication of all who are involved, can be devised to happen. Visions of forest conservation must also move beyond a CSR Project reliant on corporate sponsorship and philanthropy to maintain and fund conservation activities. Elsewise, without corporate financial support, they are doomed to fail or fade into irrelevance. The fundamental principle should be for us to look beyond our own timescale, for long term community resilience beyond just our own benefit. Forestry is not a purely professional, highly specialised science, nor gardening a hobby, it must be a collective restoration project, community led conservative management project. And it definitely involves a garden beyond just within our backyards. 

By,

Malcolm Wong Jun Xiang

Static Team Journalist

Charisma Movement 24/25 About the Author

Malcolm works in Environmental Activism and Scholarship, taking up a critical and decolonial approach to Climate and Environmental Issues.