Both Mumbai and Hyderabad have been named “2021 Tree Cities of the World” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and Arbor Day Foundation.
The ‘Tree Cities of the World’ programme was launched by the UNFAO. Additionally, UNFAO tied up with the Arbor Day Foundation, an American non-profit organisation. The programme aims to recognise cities and towns to ensure that their urban forests and trees are maintained and sustainably managed. Moreover, it provides the right direction, assistance and worldwide recognition for a community’s dedication to its urban forest.
The #UN and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN jointly recognized Mumbai as the #TreeCity. Moreover, #Mumbai is now one of the leading globals networks in urban and community #forestry.https://t.co/fbFC9n8e9i #MumbaiNews #plantation #greencity #mumbaicity
— Ved Prakash (@vprakash568) April 14, 2022
Matter of immense pride that #Hyderabad city is recognised, for the 2nd consecutive year, among the tree cities of the world by the Arborday Foundation @arborday & @FAO – #UNhttps://t.co/vzbxiOW21q
Possible only due to HCM sir's guidance@KTRTRS @IKReddyAllola@TelanganaCMO pic.twitter.com/X12CG6rJnq
— Arvind Kumar (@arvindkumar_ias) April 12, 2022
For a town or a city to be recognized as a ‘Tree City’, it has to meet five core standards to show its commitment. They are as follows:
- A city must have a written statement where it would delegate the responsibility for the care of trees to citizens or a staff member or a city department. The people responsible will be called a Tree Board.
- The city should have a law or an official policy to govern the management of urban forests and trees.
- The city should have an established and updated assessment of the local tree resource to have a long-term plan for planting, care and removal of city trees.
- The city should have a dedicated annual budget for the implementation of the tree management plan.
- Every year, the city should have a tree celebration to raise awareness among the people and acknowledge the citizens who carried out the tree programme.
Under the programme, 138 cities were recognized for the year 2021. Hyderabad had planted a whopping 3.5 crore trees in 500 volunteer hours while Mumbai had planted 4,25,000 trees in 25,000 volunteer hours.
Collectively, 138 cities had planted 38,787,795 trees in 4,86,015 volunteer hours. Moreover, the countries with the maximum tree cities include the US, UK and Canada with 37,19 and 18 cities respectively.
References: Firstpost.
Featured image source: The Indian Express
