More than 62,000 tall trees felled since 2010: urgent action needed
Citizens call on parliament to preserve the tree heritage of the Brussels-Capital Region
#trees, #environment, #climate, #BrusselsParliament, #Inter-EnvironnementBruxelles, #HELP4Trees, #SaveBrusselsTrees
PRESS RELEASE. Despite the climate law adopted by the Region in 2021 and the motion declaring a climate and environmental emergency signed by the communes, the frantic felling of tall trees continues to be authorised in the absence of reasoned and coordinated information on the Region's tree heritage. This is managed by twenty-two institutions that do not pool their information. As the figures available via the OpenPermits database only partially reflect a very worrying reality, citizens and groups (such as HELP4Trees) are sounding the alarm by calling on the authorities, via a petition submitted to the Brussels Parliament, to put in place a 'tree' policy focused on informing citizens and on the urgent preservation of the Region's tree heritage.
More than 24,000 tall trees have disappeared in the last 5 years and more than 2,700 are still at risk today.
An analysis of the OpenPermitsi reveals that, if we exclude the felling carried out as part of the management of the Forêt de Soignes, more than 62,000 tall trees have disappeared in 13 years (more than 24,000 in the last 5 years) and that, again according to the same data, only 3,254 trees have been replanted over the same period, which seems derisory. Massive felling has already taken place (such as the 500 trees that disappeared from the Parc de Woluwe in 2020), and others are currently being examined: in Brussels, just 1 application plans to fell 208 trees, 109 in Watermael Boistfort, 107 in Ixelles... in all, more than 2,700 additional trees are due to disappear soon.
iThe OpenPermits database includes applications for planning and environmental permits. The analysis was based on tree data from 2010 to 2022 and excludes felling related to the management of the Forêt de Soignes. https://openpermits.brussels/fr/arbres.
Uccle, Brussels-City, Watermael-Boitsfort and Woluwe Saint-Pierre are all champions in terms of tree felling.
While Uccle remains one of the greenest communes, it is also one of the most affected by tree felling: 14,635 trees since 2010. Brussels-City (including Laeken): 12,400, Watermael-Boitsfort: 5,466, Woluwe Saint-Pierre: 5,141 (for 1,881 felling permits). Most felling is carried out under pressure from the public authorities, in areas that are still wooded. The City of Brussels has a "canopy plan", Ixelles has a "tree plan", and other municipalities are taking tree-related initiatives on their own... yet the facts are clear: despite the climate emergency motion passed by all the municipalities, since 2019 more than 3,000 felling permits have been issued, 25% of them by Urban: by losing its trees, the Brussels-Capital Region is losing its "green".
22 institutions independently manage Brussels' trees: this administrative labyrinth is a direct threat to the capital's tree heritage.
To establish a 'tree' balance sheet for the Brussels-Capital Region (number of living trees, felling, replanting, etc.), one needs to contact no less than 22 institutions: the 19 communes (managing communal green spaces and roads), Bruxelles Environnement (managing regional parks and green spaces), Bruxelles Mobilité (managing regional roads) and Urban (managing remarkable trees), which do not pool their data. In response to the lack of a centralised map of living, disappeared or threatened trees, a contributory citizens' initiative was recently launched by IEB: arbres.cartobru.be. But this is not enough, and it is up to the public authorities to make it happen.
In the absence of a regional tree register, municipalities and the Region are taking felling decisions blindly.
Although Brussels Environment provides a plethora of online tools (mainly cartographic) establishing an inventory of the situation, these tools do not allow the evolution of the situation to be assessed. Bruxelles Mobilité ii provides information about its activities in press releases: the number of trees under management and plantings, but nothing about felling. As a result, felling decisions taken by the municipalities and the Region are taken blindly. This intolerable administrative red tape makes urban trees even more vulnerable.
The trees of Brussels Capital in danger - Key figures |
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62,268 tall trees approved for felling between 2010 and 2022. More than 24,000 high-stem trees have disappeared in the last 5 years and more than 2,900 are at risk today. (source) |
The communes most affected by tree felling are Uccle (14,635 trees), Bruxelles Ville/Laeken (12,400 trees), Watermael-Boitsfort (5,466 trees), Woluwe Saint-Pierre (5,141 trees), Anderlecht (3,679 trees) and Auderghem (3,274 trees). (source) |
The result in 13 years: 3.2 km² of additional heat zones created in the city (1 tall tree = 50 m² of canopy). (source) |
and a theoretical cumulative deficit over 13 years of 2.9 megatonnes of oxygen less (1 tall tree = at least 10 kg of oxygen produced per day) ). (source) |
22 institutions manage the Region's trees: this administrative labyrinth is a direct threat to the capital's tree heritage. |
25 years is the time it takes for a replanted sapling to produce the same benefits as a tall tree. Too late, given the pace of climate change (source Francis Hallé, Du Bon usage des arbres, p.43) |
It takes 25 years for a replanted sapling to produce the same benefits as a tall tree. Too late, given the rate of climate change.
The Region has announced that 21,000 trees and shrubs were planted by 2021... Public authorities often claim that replanting compensates for felling trees, but nothing could be further from the truth. If you decide to cut down a tree, you are immediately depriving yourself of the many benefits it provides over the long term: benefits for mental health, shade, coolness through evapotranspiration, limitation of cold winds, absorption of 25 kg of carbon per tree per year, production of 10 kg of oxygen per tree per day, water retention... which a newly planted tree, if it survives, will take at least 25 years to restore. In addition to their essential role in beautifying the urban landscape, trees are essential to the green network and to maintaining biodiversity in the city, as they provide shelter for animals.
Big gap between political rhetoric and reality on the ground: our trees need to be protected today.
Despite the omnipresence of climate change in political discourse, we are forced to note the gulf between promises and the reality on the ground (trees felled daily following the issue of permits, but also illegally without any permits, sometimes even by local authorities). Faced with this glaring lack of information, a network of concerned citizens and groups are sounding the alarm about the destruction of their tree heritage and the ever-increasing concrete development of their town. They are calling on regional politicians to take action today to preserve the trees in the Brussels-Capital Region. By means of a petition, they are calling on them to :
- to urgently adopt a regional tree policy aimed at respectful management of the region's tree stock, with 3 key objectives: to preserve the existing tree stock, to increase the number of trees, and to mobilise and raise awareness among the general public
- to set up a fully-fledged regional service, made up equally of citizens and qualified scientific experts, with the sole authority to centralise the management of the Region's tree heritage,
- to put in place harmonised tools that are readily available to the public (such as a register of all trees, mapping and data to monitor changes in the tree population over time) to enable informed and transparent decision-making,
- to enforce the application of the emergency climate motion and existing ordinances on environmental protection and biodiversity preservation, and possibly to enact others aimed explicitly at protecting existing tall trees,
- to set up a Brussels Chamber of the Environment along the lines of that created in 2022 within the Mons Court of Appeal (not included in the petition)
- to take part in the paradigm shift that has been widely endorsed by the public: refusing to see trees as a mere ornament to the city and asserting their right to be treated from now on with the same care as any living beings.
Notes
ii Bruxelles Mobilité estimates that the 30,000 trees it manages represent 160 hectares of canopy (https://mobilite-mobiliteit-brussels.prezly.com/bruxelles-mobilite-quelle-place-pour-les-arbres-en-ville Consequently, 1 tree = 50 m² of canopy.
Bruxelles Mobilité does not publish felling/planting balances. The database of all the trees it manages can be accessed here: https://data.mobility.brussels/fr/info/trees/. Information on plantings is provided via press releases: https://mobilite-mobiliteit-brussels.prezly.com/le-bilan-de-cette-saison-de-plantations-a-bruxelles--focus-sur-la-biodiversite
The petition
https://democratie.brussels/initiatives/i-178
To sign: create an account on democratie.brussels (with Itsme or another digital key) and vote!
Signatories:
HELP4Trees, IEB, Bruxelles nature, Fondations pour la vallée de Neerpede et du Vogelzang, Fondations pour la Nature et la Biodiversité à Bruxelles🌿, Save Bergoje Trees, We Are Nature (WAN), Save Donderberg, QuartierWielsWijk, asbl Marais Wiels Moeras, CPN Brabant, CEBE, ACQU
Contacts:
HELP4Trees is a group of citizens concerned about the city's trees and working to preserve them. | Johanne Verbockhaven: |
Inter-Environnement Bruxelles | Cataline Sénéchal: |