Trees adopted by citizens

Agreements between municipal administrations and neighborhood associations are multiplying throughout Italy. Green spaces also help rediscover community life.

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trees adopted by citizens

TREES ADOPTED BY CITIZENS

In my neighborhood, in the unfortunate and abandoned Rome, there are about ten citizens' associations that deal with take care of urban greenery of the area, and above all of plant treesThose we're accustomed to destroying through neglect, vandalism, or simply to occupy even the smallest piece of public land. In my neighborhood, there's a square with a large, tidy, and well-tended flowerbed. When I studied it closely, stopping for a breath of fresh air, I realized that the entire urban garden has been adopted by local residents. Some have even "bought" the restored bench, like in New York's Central Park, and placed a plaque with their name on the back of the bench.

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HOW TO PROTECT PUBLIC GREEN SPACES

The phenomenon of green-do-it-yourself(cared for by citizens who move forward while the public administration falls behind, even if only due to a lack of resources and personnel), is spreading like wildfire in Italy. And we consider this a success, also for the Non sprecare community, which has always fought for this form of civic duty and participation that can truly change the face of our cities. Where we need not only to care for trees, but to plant them, one after the other, everywhere.

Only in the city of Milan, which in this too is the most advanced Italian metropolis, the agreements stipulated between the municipal administration and private citizens, since 2015, are now 541The first year of the experiment there were just 100: the growth is disruptive. But also in Rome, Bologna, Palermo, Naples, Florence, everywhere in Italy, there are groups of citizens, even just individual condominiums or associations of homeowners and tenants, who take charge of the flowerbeds, gardens, trees that need to be looked after and saved.City Volunteers: Don't Waste, or even guardians of greenery, everyone's greenery. In Rome, in the Porta Portese area, a small association, founded by the energy of a newsagent, aimed to plant 25 trees in a couple of years: they're already at 52, and counting. Like in other neighborhoods in the city, where trees are often dedicated to someone: a daughter, a wife, a cat, or a dog.

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Guardians of Greenery in Italian Cities

The shift in the administrative paradigm, according to which everything that falls within the purview of a municipality sees citizens as passive users, is being reversed. And this gives hope for greenery, for trees, for a return to a healthy lifestyle. community lifeOn the other hand, if we don't want to reduce the defense of greenery to the usual Manzonian cries of pain, inevitably destined to fall on deaf ears, we must remember that in Italy there are a total of 12 billion trees. And in Milan alone, despite the widely felt lack of trees, 258 trees have been registered. No generous, green municipality can sustain the current financial situation, the impact of the maintenance, care, and development costs of this heritage. Therefore, it's up to us to become custodians of the greenery..

TREES ADOPTED AFTER THE VAIA STORM

Storm Vaia, from October 26 to 30, 2018, destroyed tens of thousands of trees in several regions of the Northeast. Winds that gusted for days at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour were also to blame. Thanks to the generosity of citizens and the activism of several tree-planting associations, 16.500 trees were adopted through crowdfunding and planted in the storm-affected areas of Veneto, Trentino, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TREES IN THE CITY:

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