City authorities have unveiled a draft of the Gdansk Charter for Trees, which is expected to revolutionize the approach to greenery in the city.
- It's all about health. If the trees are gone, and we start getting forty-degree heat in the summer, people will die. The temperature on the top floors of buildings will become unbearable. Therefore, whether we want it or not, we need to spend more money on greenery," said Katarzyna Rozmarynowska, an architect and urban planner, a specialist in landscape architecture and the history of garden art, in an interview with AiB.
In the Pomeranian capital, the protection of trees growing in the city is to be improved by the Gdansk Charter for Trees. The document specifies how to carry out pruning and care for trees, defines standards for tree diagnostics, as well as a comprehensive tree inventory. On October 31, during the planting in Przymorze Park, the Charter was submitted to residents for their opinions. Ultimately, its provisions are to be introduced by an order of the mayor of Gdansk.
Planting dew trees in Przymorze
Dominik Paszlinski/Gdansk.pl
Gdansk Charter for Trees. Effects of the work
- We have completed the formal stage of work on the Gdansk Charter for Trees. It's a document that will help organize topics related to the maintenance of trees already growing in the city and improving the conditions for their development, as well as the process of planting new specimens, says Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, mayor of Gdansk. - We are making the document available to all residents of Gdansk, who can already get acquainted with it on the website gdansk.pl and the Gdansk Roads and Greenery Management Board. We are very keen to get the widest possible public involved in the process of further development of the Charter.
The project envisages, among other things, that a minimum of 500 sq. m. of land will be paved annually, with the priority in these activities being to improve the living conditions of existing trees or create space for new plantings. Finally, green access standards are to be prepared for the entire city, including an analysis of those places where residents do not have access to green areas. The task will rest on the shoulders of the director of the Gdansk Development Office.
Gdansk Charter for Trees
UM Gdańsk
Time for residents
City authorities have announced that they plan to establish a community tree council, to which they will invite representatives of community initiatives, experts, as well as city councilors. This will be a platform for exchanging ideas on greening the city.
The document - at least in theory - is expected to improve the approach of investors performing work on behalf of the city. Henceforth, in contracts involving construction work, officials are to set contractual penalties for deterioration of tree habitat, damage or destruction of greenery, or violation of prohibitions in tree protection zones.
- Expectations for the Gdansk Charter for Trees are high. This is an important topic for residents and social organizations, gathered around the projects Zadrzewiamy Gdański and Dajmy Szóstka Drzewom w Mieście," says Mikolaj Lewandowski, co-author of the citizen's resolution initiative Zadrzewiamy Gdańsk. - They met with great public support, which gave us energy for participatory work on the GKdD project. It is important that the Charter now goes to the residents, and that they give feedback to us, and present their ideas for its further development, so that it fulfills the hopes placed in it to the fullest.
