Urban tree planting and strengthen nurseries through citizen participation and transparency. (ARCRC0001)

Commitment ID

ARCRC0001

Commitment Title

Promote the management of urban tree planting and strengthen the city nurseries through citizen participation.

Problem

According to records from the Citizen Attention Service, so far in 2022, there has been a high rate of requests for tree removal and pruning (89%), compared to a low percentage of planting requests (11% ). This is due to the advance of disorganized and unbalanced constructions between green and gray spaces, where it is decided to remove them instead of preserving them. This problem of excessive pruning that urban trees are currently suffering must be made visible.

During the co-creation process, the neighbors expressed their disagreement about the lack of awareness, the importance of planting more trees and about the maintenance of the existing ones to reduce the temperature, the overheating of the pavement and especially during the summer as a way to provide shade. At the same time, there is a lack of knowledge of autochthonous species, suitable for sidewalks, green spaces, pruning seasons, among others.

Status quo

Currently, the Municipality is betting on an integral reforestation’s policy of the city and also to empower the management of the urban tree planting. In order to that, it is working with nurseries to supply the needs of plants and fertilizer. It's a strategic goal of the government planned since the beginning of the public management: in the 2021, to plant 15000 trees in four years, which ones have planted 2092, having provided 3000 specimens for 2023 and 3500 ones for 2024.

The agreements signed with the nurseries Jardín Botánico and Eragia have been updated, and one application was developed that allows registering trees and getting the inventory of them to have concrete data.

Ordinance No. 4334, which regulates the management of Public Urban Tree Planting, was sanctioned. However, it must be regulated to ensure that after extracting a tree, it is replaced with a new one, and, in the best of cases, with two specimens. Nevertheless, these data are not available and accessible to the citizens.

Action

Within the framework of the Reforestation Plan and the Strengthening of the city’s nurseries Program, the commitment will seek to: a) Increase the quality and quantity of trees in the city in 6500 units, in public spaces and sidewalks; b) Carry out periodic meetings with responsible government areas for Urban Tree Planting to coordinate courses of action; c) Disseminate and make visible the Plans and Programs; d) Publish a dynamic record of the existing trees in the city, of the extractions and their replacements, as well as of the nurseries; e) Incorporate instances of participation with stakeholders involved in the development of milestones.

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

The commitment will contribute to significantly improve the tree planting maintenance policy, to provide a solution to the problem of excessive extraction. It will serve to meet the needs of citizens who demand more trees with native species, to generate more shade, lower the temperature of the pavement and generate more and better green spaces that are pleasant to walk on.

In addition, the residents will have participatory instances, with open, friendly and updated information that allows them to have data on urban trees and nurseries in the city. This will contribute to adopt urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects, contributing to SDG (ODS) 1

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

The commitment is related to the objective of: opening greater spaces for participation, dialogue and collaboration; with transparency through the opening of data with purpose and with the rendering of accounts of the milestones and progress that the process of executing the Action Plan implies.

All this allows us to continue promoting the values ​​of Open Government as a comprehensive strategy, not only targeting the residents of the city but also within the Municipality, transversally.

The city's strategic vision is to be a Friendly and Sustainable City where there are more spaces for integration, betting on the quality of life and the full development of the inhabitants without compromising future generations, improving the management of resources and the link with nature.

Primary Policy Area

Civic Space, Open Data

Primary Sector

Environment & Climate, Land & Spatial Planning

What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?