The Office of the Ombudsman of the City of Buenos Aires sent this Monday to Commune 1, to the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Directorate of Green Spaces of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (CABA), a claim for the tree removal on Paseo Colón avenue, reported that agency.
“Trees are essential for the environmental health of contemporary cities, however, the City of Buenos Aires has fewer trees than it should,” he warned.
According to the most recent surveys, in CABA, with three million permanent residents, it would have to have about 450 thousand trees.
“That amount includes both the trees that we see on the sidewalks (public alignment trees) and those found in public and private green spaces,” he explained, adding that, despite having much fewer trees than necessary “Every time a great public work is carried out, they are the first victims.”
On the occasion of the construction of the Paseo del Bajo, a seven kilometer road corridor that connects the north and south of the city parallel to the Río de la Plata, dozens of trees were removed “With the promise of not only replenishing them, but also planting more trees than there were initially.”
The Ombudsman warned that, instead of the specimens that had taken decades to grow, new young specimens were planted, most of which withered and died in less than two yearsyes
The government of Horacio Rodriguez Larreta is expanding the Metrobús del Bajo, which connects Retiro with the south of the city.
“Numerous neighbors warned that numerous specimens of the trees were being felled of alignment on Paseo Colón avenue from Humberto Primo to Brasil avenue,” he assured.
Personnel from the institution’s Environment and Sustainable Development Coordination carried out an on-site verification and verified the veracity of the neighborhood complaint.
On March 10, in the Buenos Aires Legislature, during the first ordinary session of the year, a request for information was ordered from the local Executive to know the criteria that determined the felling of trees in the Bajo area as part of the Metrobús works.
The request was made based on two projects presented by the legislators of the Frente de Todos, Maia Daer and Laura Velasco, which seek to investigate the reasons for which the decision was made to cut down and extract the trees, as well as “the amount of affected species, if it is planned to plant new specimens in the area and which companies were in charge of the work”.
Lastly, according to residents of the area, in recent weeks about 70 ash trees, jacarandas, plane trees and eucalyptus trees, which accompanied the layout of Paseo Colón avenuewere felled by the Buenos Aires Government as part of the Metrobús works.
