In Mérida, a declaration will be issued to protect the historical, cultural, and environmental value of 25 trees in the city, so that they will be protected from logging and new developments.
The mayor of Mérida, Cecilia Patrón Laviada, announced in a press conference that next Thursday she will issue the declaration for certain trees to be declared heritage.
“These trees will be declared so that they cannot be touched by anyone, and if they want to make an avenue or a construction they will have to respect that tree,” she explained.
The trees that will be declared as heritage will depend on their age, and their environmental value, and it will also be taken into account if they have any history related to them.
“This declaration will be made with the authorization of the owners of the properties where the trees are,” she explained.
So far there is a catalogue of 25 trees that will be declared as heritage and for the mayor this is a way to improve the quality of life of those who live in Merida.
In this sense, she also specified that reports are made on 1,700 trees since it has been identified that some are sick and must be replaced by healthy trees.
Regarding the construction of new developments, Patrón Laviada mentioned that they will be vigilant so that construction companies comply with existing regulations.
“We will ask them to maintain their green areas, not to put trees that do not provide shade and we have a catalog of plants that they should use,” she said.
The importance of establishing this strategy arises from recommendations made by Natural England since each person should have access to a green space of at least two hectares no more than 300 meters from their home, or 5 minutes on foot, in addition to spending at least 120 minutes per week in nature to improve their health.
Likewise, the reason for preserving the green areas of the Yucatecan capital is that temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius have been recorded.
Patrón Laviada shared that Mérida is in permanent growth, but it must ensure that it is a green city, and for this, it needs the consolidation of infrastructure in its parks, roads, walkways, and cycle paths.
“It is about increasing safe spaces and improving the physical and social space to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce the temperature and increase urban biodiversity,” he said.
As part of the diagnosis that was made to identify the strategies to be implemented, 700 parks and green areas were counted, in addition to the Cuxtal Reserve which has 11,894 hectares, in addition to Dzibilchaltún and the zoos Centenario Park and Animaya.
For now, Mérida has 15.2 of tree cover and the scarcity of it has caused an increase of 1.42 degrees of temperature in the last 65 years.
As part of this strategy, there will be a network of green corridors that will cover the areas of Mérida 2000, Ciudad Caucel, Santa Fe, Brisas, the eastern corridor, and the southern corridor.
At the same time, the regulatory framework will also be updated, such as the Municipal Urban Development Program, the Green Infrastructure Plan, the Master Plan for Urban and Sustainable Mobility, the Municipal Climate Action Plan, and others.
TYT Newsroom
