Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Trees Versus Housing

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

CARACAS, Sep 12 2011 (IPS) - The construction of apartment buildings on vacant lots in the centre of Venezuelan cities like Caracas is having an impact on the trees that have surrounded these lots for many years. "The trees are being transplanted, but that isn’t good enough if nobody is going to take care of them, and it strips the residents of our areas of their feeling of ownership. If areas that we thought of as green areas are turned over to another use, the voice of the communities should be listened to, and that isn’t happening," Carlos Rojas, a member of the neighborhood Citizens Assembly, told Tierramérica.

Mario Gabaldón, president of the Botanical Gardens of Caracas, told Tierramérica that "construction in these areas – which border on the central avenue of Paseo José María Vargas – will change the landscape, and in addition, transplanting trees is not an automatic task, it requires studies of the soils and other conditions, care and follow-up. You can’t just transplant them and say goodbye."