The Tampere City Tree Policy shines the spotlight on all aspects of local greenery

Consisting of several sub-policies, it is meant to transform Tampere into a greener and healthier version of itself

Earlier last month, the Finnish city of Tampere approved its first-ever overarching policy concerning greenery and trees in the city. The Tampere City Tree Policy takes into account all aspects of tree planting and translates them into a more thorough and comprehensive approach to greening the urban area.

Taking trees seriously

The Tampere City Tree Policy consists of sub-policies in which trees have been examined from the perspectives of climate, cultural history, cityscape, diversity, tree species, design, construction and maintenance, and the monetary value of wood property and the benefits derived from it. In addition, there is a desire to improve the tree knowledge of citizens, decision-makers and those working with trees.

The future urban trees of Tampere will be developed in such a way that it is regionally comprehensive and equally accessible to the residents, diverse and multi-faceted. In addition, the aim is to make trees that are well-adapted to climate change and resistant to possible extreme weather events and new diseases and pests.

The city tree policy applies to planted and individual naturally grown trees in the built environment, ie street and park trees, owned and responsible by the City of Tampere. The Urban Tree Policy also takes a stand to promote the use and care of trees by the city and privately owned properties. Trees growing in forest areas are not included in the alignment.

The Tampere City Tree Policy has been drawn up as a common state of mind for the city, in which the city defines and publishes its principles and operating methods for city trees. In addition to the objectives for urban trees, the policy brings together policies that promote the objectives and the benefits that the actions will achieve.

Additionally, in connection with the urban tree policy, the opinions of the townspeople and their hopes for new tree planting sites were surveyed. The survey was open until June 2020 and a total of 1,406 map entries were submitted, of which 502 were opinion entries and 904 were wishes about new trees.

At the same time, there was also an Instagram campaign to publish pictures of the townspeople’s favourite trees that aimed to popularize the whole initiative.