Urban forestry: A real challenge

Urban forest is greenery management in an urban area to enhance its aesthetics, ecological balance and quality of public spaces for recreation to foster a harmonious relationship. Praiseworthy initiatives are being made to promote urban forestry and preserve open places, although there are many challenges.

According to the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority, lack of urban forest planning and management in the past has caused great damage along the inner roads and the Ring Road. Kathmandu has little forest cover compared to other municipalities. Kathmandu Metropolitan City has provisioned that all new households allocate space for at least two trees. The Planning Guidelines, 2015 also has a provision to declare public and government-owned open spaces as ‘green areas’. According to the National Urban Development Strategy, published by the Ministry of Urban Development, forest cover is only 3 per cent in Kathmandu against 10 per cent in Pokhara.

Trees and forests store carbon, helping to mitigate the impact of climate change. They also improve local climate, control pollution and cool the air upto 8 degrees Celsius, reducing the need for air conditioning by 30 per cent. Besides trees are excellent air filters and help reduce noise pollution.

But haphazard road construction in many cities without taking care of roadside plantation and urban green spaces has literally defaced them. Lack of funds, trained staff and awareness with an irresponsible government and public are the main challenges for urban forestry development. There is no legal provision on urban forestry, and no responsible institution to facilitate such development and management.

The Ministry of Urban development was formed to promote healthy urban development but it has not been able to do so till now. There is a need of proper collaboration and coordination among the relevant stakeholders for promoting forests and trees in the urban landscape. Most of our forest and biodiversity conservation-related programmes are concentrated only in the forest-dominated rural landscape. But time has come to connect nature with development and technology. We must galvanise our efforts for the development of healthy and sustainable forests. We must develop policies and programmes and implement them to promote greenery in the urban and semi-urban landscape.