Urban woodland management through the Open Government perspective (ARBA0005)

Commitment ID

ARBA0005

Commitment Title

Urban woodland management in the City of Buenos Aires through the Open Government perspective

Problem

The Government of the City of Buenos Aires has different areas working on urban woodland policies. That’s why there are some challenges in systematizing the available information. This generates distances between the citizens and the government: neighbors don’t have a clear and direct communication channel to express their demands on the subject and to better understand the urban woodland policies. For example, the state of the trees on their sidewalks, and information such as species suitable for sidewalks, species suitable for green spaces, and pruning season, among others, is unknown.

Status quo

In 2009, Law 3263 was enacted, which aims to protect and increase trees in urban areas, complying with technical and administrative requirements. This regulation made it possible to lay the foundations so that in 2013 the Ministry of Environment and Public Space of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires presents the Master Plan for Trees with the aim of improving planning and transforming public trees into a true State policy. In turn, through the law, the Register of Historical and Notable Trees of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires was created and the government was able to have a policy of dissemination, awareness, and promotion of environmental education.

Action

Within the framework of the Master Plan for Trees of the City of Buenos Aires, the commitment will seek to incorporate the perspective of open government for the opening of information and participation of actors in the subject. To this end, it proposes: a) holding regular meetings with government areas responsible for trees to coordinate courses of action; b) Disseminate and displaying the Woodland Master Plan in stages; c) having a record of existing trees in the City; d) coordinate actions with specialists in the subject; e) incorporate the participation of neighbors.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?

The commitment consolidates a State policy and provides a framework for its coordination. At the same time, it will improve citizen participation through more information. On the other hand, it resolves the need to have a registry of existing trees unified by the Government and provides a tool available to neighbors, which will allow them to have more and better information.

What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?

As part of the Third Open Government Action Plan of the City of Buenos Aires, the commitment pursues the objective of continuing to deepen the vision of open government across government. At the same time, it has a long-term vision of transparent, participatory, and fair environmental management. In this sense, it is not just generating open data. The commitment is about thinking and planning the tree policy, promoting collaboration and interaction between actors from different sectors of the government.

Also, this commitment is related to the project “BA Cambio Climático”<, a platform that contains the actions carried out by the government in climate matters. Through this project the government promotes the Open Government perspective in climate action.

Primary Policy Area

Civic Space, Open Data

Primary Sector

Environment & Climate, Public Services (general)

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?