El Ayuntamiento de Salamanca continues to develop the Special Plan for Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Protection and its Savia Red Verde strategy to contribute to an even healthier city, adapted to climate change, and therefore, increasing the quality of life for people by introducing nature into urban environments.
On the day that spring begins, also the eve of International Forest Day, the mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo, planted a new urban forest today, the Bosque del Deporte, composed of 6 elms and 6 almond trees, located within the municipal sports complex La Salud in Pizarrales.
Representatives from various sports disciplines in the city participated in the event, making the planting a tribute to a group that embodies the best values of Salamanca society, such as effort, striving for improvement, camaraderie, and teamwork to achieve goals that carry the name of Salamanca around the world.
These elms come from a new batch of the ‘Spanish Program for the Conservation and Improvement of the Genetic Resources of Iberian Elms’ from the General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests, and Desertification of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD). They have been obtained from other specimens whose resistance is proven, with the aim of recovering a variety that has been disappearing from many places in the Iberian Peninsula due to this tree disease.
In total, 120 native elms resistant to Dutch elm disease are being planted in six areas of the city, adding to the 638 planted since 2019, within Salamanca City Council’s lands with maintenance by municipal services, providing adequate protection against vandalism and the presence of stray animals.
In addition to the Bosque del Deporte, the Bosque del Personal Sanitario next to the hospital road and the Bosque de la Universidad in La Platina are being expanded, and the tree mass of the Green Corridors along the Tormes River in Huerta Otea, Cordel de Merinas street in Chamberí, and La Aldehuela Lane next to El Baldío Park is being increased.
More green areas in the city with more trees and shrubs
Carbayo reaffirmed the City Council’s commitment to increasing the city’s tree mass after adding more than 9,200 trees and shrubs in the past year, surpassing a total of 141,000, spread across over 2.74 million square meters of municipal green areas.
In addition to these figures, the trees along the Tormes riverbank, under the jurisdiction of the Duero River Basin Authority, and those on the Miguel de Unamuno campus of the University of Salamanca should be added. Thus, along with specimens in private courtyards, it is estimated that there is one tree per inhabitant in the city.
This number will increase from this year with 30,000 new trees in 51 green areas, 34 streets, and 15 forest areas through an investment of 500,000 euros from the City Council’s surplus in 2024. Likewise, actions will be taken in the Carmelitas and Doctor Torres Villarroel promenades to green them with an investment of 85,000 euros each.
The mayor concluded his speech reaffirming the City Council’s commitment to safeguarding natural values and promoting ecosystem services in the municipal area of a World Heritage City. This strategy sets the present path towards a greener and more sustainable urban model, promoting the health and well-being of the citizens, generating new economic and employment opportunities around the environment, agri-food sector, and biotechnology, and adopting measures to address the challenges of climate change.
As evidence, Carbayo added, is the maintenance of municipal green areas by social economy companies and special employment centers such as La Encina, created by Cáritas, and El Arca, belonging to Asprodes, which provide jobs for people with disabilities or at risk of social exclusion thanks to funding from the Salamanca City Council.
This effort has been recognized by the international program ‘Tree Cities of the World 2024’, awarded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Arborday Foundation, through the Arbocity Association in Spain, for their commitment to urban trees. This recognition adds to the Tree Award granted to Salamanca in 2022 by the Cities Forum of Madrid IFEMA for promoting urban natural spaces to enhance the health and well-being of city residents sustainably.