Hanoi authorities, who aim to plant a million trees over the course of 2019 and 2020, have made progress in greening the city in the weeks after Tet.
It was Former President Ho Chi Minh who first set up the initiative of planting trees in the days following Tet. Between February 9 and 15, 150,000 trees were planted in 12 districts across the city, VietnamNet reports.
Late last year, it was announced that one million trees had been planted in the capital over a three-year period. That report, however, didn’t include the number of trees that have been cut down at the same time.
In many development projects, urbanization takes priority over the environment. In 2017, around 1,000 trees were cut down to widen part of Pham Van Dong Street in Tu Liem District, while in May last year, over 150 trees were uprooted along Cat Linh Street for construction of Line 3 of Hanoi’s Metro project.
The benefits of adding trees to urban landscapes can be substantial. A mature tree can absorb up to 150 kilograms of CO2 each year, while trees also play a central role in climate change mitigation and air quality regulation.
