Lead together – scalable solutions for positive climate impact
Zaragoza has turned a plan to plant a tree for every citizen into an opportunity to sow the seeds of a sustainability sensibility among children and allow a new kind of co-creation governance model to take root in the city.
There was a time, during reforestation work a century ago on a pine forest to the south of the city, when it was said that not one single Zaragozano had never planted a pine tree.
Today, over a century later, Zaragoza is again aiming to get every one of its citizens – that’s 700,000 – to plant a tree.
This time, however, many varieties of new trees will be planted across the city’s mosaic of diverse landscapes in a project ambitious to have a positive impact on many aspects of city life – and on progress towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals.
‘The Citizen Forest of Zaragoza is not an isolated project,’ stresses Montserrat Hernández Martin, Head of the Strategic Development Unit of Zaragoza’s Parks, Gardens and Green Infrastructure Service. ‘It is one of the important ways we are making our strategic Green Infrastructure Masterplan real and moving towards being a climate neutral city’.
The city’s objectives for its Citizen Forest start, naturally, with improving CO2 emission absorption, air and water quality, biodiversity, the health of citizens and the resilience and sustainability of the city. And with promoting the circular economy. But they don’t stop there.
From urban degradation to forest education
Through the creation and connection of new urban and peri-urban spaces of distinct forest character, the city also aims to address some of the inevitable results of urban development such as fragmentation of forest areas and degradation of industrial environments.
Through this planting, the city also hopes citizens will feel more connected to the natural world around them as they go about their daily lives.
‘Zaragoza wants to promote the relationship between people and nature, to make it more of a biophilic city,’ says Rebeca Martinez a Consultant with the Ecology and Development Foundation (ECODES), a strategic partner on the project. ‘For a long time we have used nature but not really learned from it and this is a great, long-term project that’s doing something about this.’
Making sure the younger generation learns about nature and climate action and how they can play their part is another of the project’s aspirations.
Teachers, forest engineers and environmental educators join forces to run an education programme encompassing classroom talks and lessons, interactive gamified activities and plantation site visits.
‘Children get an explanation about why urban forests are beneficial for the city and what kind of species are planted in which area and why,’ explains Martinez. ‘When they go to the planting site they know why planting their tree is important and are really happy to participate.’
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