Lodz as European Green Capital by 2020

CHAPTER 3
Barriers to the Preservation of Trees in Cities and Ways to
Overcome These Barriers
The number of trees in centers of big cities in Poland is decreasing.
Moreover, the living conditions of trees in Poland within the last 10 years
became worse.
The administrative and social barriers have negative influence on situation
of trees in Polish cities.
To overcome those barriers several solutions were identified.
3.1 Introduction
The quantity of trees in central areas of large cities in Poland is decreasing, and most probably the
same happens in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Loosing trees, society is also losing
a source of important ecosystem services. As a result, an increase in social and economic costs of
environmental degradation and public health related to higher traffic and industry is observed. The
quality of life in central urban areas is deteriorating, often leading to the social degradation of those
areas. Apart from the phenomena traditionally discussed with reference to the problems of urban
trees, such as salinity and hardening of soils or air pollution (related to increased pressures from
transportation and the development of infrastructure), we should also consider institutional failures
that lead to the former more often discussed problems. The institutional failures include government
(or administrative) failures and social failures.
The research project entitled Barriers to the preservation of trees in cities and ways to overcome
these barriers, which is a part of a larger project Ecosystem services for sustainable development of
cities, conducted by the Sendzimir Foundation, refers to these kinds of failures. Better knowledge
about and understanding of the administrative and social barriers would allow improving the
situation of trees in cities, and hence increase the use of their services in a sustainable manner.
3.2 Method
The objectives of this research project fell into the following categories:
1. Identification of the institutional barriers to the preservation of trees in central areas of cities
in Poland (with some comparison to the situation of other countries in Central and Eastern
Europe).
2. Identification of opportunities to overcome those barriers.
22