Star architect Stefano Boeri launches a new urban reforestation project for Milan: ForestaMi plans to plant 100,000 trees this year alone, reaching three million trees by 2030.
It is called ForestaMi and it is the City of Milan's project with the ambitious goal, by 2030, of planting three million trees — one for every person living in the metropolitan area. The initiative, incorporated into the plan launched last autumn by the Politecnico di Milano with architect Stefano Boeri as scientific director, aims to improve air quality and green spaces through an urban forestry intervention.
The project already envisages the planting of 100,000 new trees in 2019, in keeping with the planting season running from November to March, then reaching 400,000 by 2022, two million by 2026 — the year of the Winter Olympics — and completing the journey with three million trees by 2030.
The preliminary phase before any concrete action involved a detailed mapping of the territory, carried out over the course of a year by a team of researchers coordinated by Professor Maria Chiara Pastore. The team mapped the entire territory, which today has almost half a million trees, while five and a half million have been estimated in the surrounding municipalities.
By 2030 there will therefore be a 50 per cent increase in green lungs. The plan, which includes not only information on the areas of intervention but also on costs, will be presented on 21 November at the session of the World forum on urban forests at the Triennale di Milano. The interventions will be both large and small in scale, and a large metropolitan park will be created. The Politecnico di Milano has already completed a mapping of schools that will be able to put themselves forward, through a competition, to make their premises greener.
The trees will be positioned at strategic points, at the expense of parking areas, but also on former railway yards. The majority will be planted outside the city walls: from the Abbiatense area to the stations of Albairate and Abbiategrasso, taking in the Grugnotorto park, the land of the Fondazione Ca' Granda and the initiatives of the Fondazione Cariplo.
Among the private entities that have decided to support ForestaMi, Fondazione Falck and Fs sistemi urbani stand out, alongside Axa Italia which, on the occasion of the Know you can concert organised for the city of Milan, announced the funding of one of the ForestaMi pilot projects, involving a series of tree plantings in school courtyards.
A selection committee will evaluate the projects, which will then be announced on 21 March 2020 on the occasion of the International Day of Forests. "Planting trees, creating woods, multiplying the number of plants along streets, in squares, in courtyards, on the rooftops and façades of our cities: it is the most effective, economical and engaging way to slow global warming, reduce consumption and clean the fine particulate matter from the air we breathe," explained Stefano Boeri. "Today urban forestry is at the top of the agenda of the world's great metropolises, and Milan is putting itself forward as one of the leading cities in a campaign to reverse climate change across the world."
For the Mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, "the battle for the environment is a profoundly political battle. I have said so since my candidacy for mayor. And today I am more convinced of it than ever. Young people around the world are asking institutions and governments to tackle this issue with seriousness and urgency. We have a duty to give them effective answers. Ecology and sustainability will continue to guide our choices — from mobility to urban planning — with the aim of shaping a more responsible and conscious social project for the Milan of 2030 and beyond."
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At the heart of Milan's candidacy as a symbol of the new urban philosophy is a journey begun ten years ago by architect Stefano Boeri, the father of the award-winning Bosco Verticale. The theme championed by Boeri, and now by many other advocates, is that of urban forestry and the protection of biodiversity in major cities.
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The concept is built on three main aspects: halting urban expansion through a green belt that reintroduces the concept of a boundary to the urban area and prevents the uncontrolled concreting over of the countryside; bringing woodland and biodiversity into cities to help mitigate climate and pollution problems; and, finally, promoting an architecture that considers nature as an essential part of itself from the very outset.
"ForestaMi certainly fits into this philosophy for a greener, more liveable and resilient Milan. The three-million-tree plan is an ambitious vision through which the metropolitan city plays an important role in European and global urban forestry policy. Three million new trees means five million tonnes of CO2 and thousands of tonnes of fine particulate matter less," Boeri emphasised.
"To those who ask me whether this isn't madness," he himself declares, "I reply that if, over the next ten years, every inhabitant of the metropolitan area were to plant one tree, we would have achieved the result. I saw the same scepticism when we proposed the Bosco Verticale, which is now being copied all over the world."