KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia. New Straits Times. June 21, 2013. (English). –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, and this year’s marked the second consecutive year that KidZania Kuala Lumpur hosted a tree-planting exercise.

The GPS-linked trees will be captured by high-quality photographs which will then link them directly to Google Earth. The system will also capture information like the species of the tree and its height when planted. All these details will also be accessible via Google Earth.

The trees that are being planted belong to a rare species and this system allows for its growth to be monitored and tracked. Updated photographs showing the tree growing at different times (as in five years or 20 years after being planted) will be uploaded onto Google Earth.

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

The guest of honour, KL City Hall director-general Datuk Salleh Yusup, launched the tree-planting exercise by planting the first sapling.

Also present was Tunku Datuk Ahmad Burhanuddin Tunku Adnan, managing director and chief executive officer of Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd and governor of KidZania Malaysia.

The 99 other saplings, which comprised Shorea sumatrana, Pteleocarpa lampoya, Shorea roxburghii, Garcinia hombroniana, Garcinia cowa and 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 be of benefit to the surrounding community. One benefit 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 values, beautifying the park and complementing the surrounding scenery.

Tunku Ahmad Burhanuddin said the tree-planting exercise was in line with KidZania’s Kids for a Greener World global campaign, an environmental extravaganza that engages kids to learn, share and grow a greener world. From April to June this year, KidZania Kuala Lumpur played host to a series of green-themed activities.

Also present at the tree-planting ceremony were members of Team 5E-1 from SK Damansara Jaya 2, winners of the Kids for a Greener World 2013 Competition, an inter-school art competition hosted by KidZania Kuala Lumpur.

The winners received their awards at the tree-planting ceremony and will be treated to a trip to KidZania Kuala Lumpur as well as KidZania merchandise, all in total worth nearly RM2,000.