Israeli Cities Get a Shady Proposition

Israel is preparing to launch a major tree-planting campaign—not in Bedouin areas of the Negev, but in the cities.

As a means of providing shade and fighting climate change, the Agriculture Ministry plans to plant 450,000 trees by 2040 along 9 million feet of Israeli streets in 100 localities, at an estimated cost of NIS 2.25 billion ($720 million).

The goal is 70 percent shading of sidewalks on main thoroughfares by 2040, as an “investment in urban afforestation at this time.” Trees are “critical urban infrastructure, especially in a time of climate change,” the Cabinet resolution reads.

However, cited data from a new study that suggests the planting project will be more than offset by the annual tree cutting around the country.

Geographer Shay Hershko, a tree expert who maps the tree cutting permits issued by the Forests Clerk at the Agriculture Ministry, found that in 2021, approximately 290,000 trees were cut down pursuant to 6,900 cutting permits.

Hershko argues that the massive cutting wreaks extensive environmental damage, as the mature trees absorb far more carbon dioxide, thereby ameliorating the warming, reducing pollution, creating shade and absorbing more rainfall to prevent flooding.

The National Economic Council in the Prime Minister’s Office, which is co-sponsoring the plan, declined to comment on the impact of cutting.

The Environmental Protection Ministry said in response that a “strategy team” to be set up as part of the plan’s implementations “will look into aspects of preventing felling, both in public areas and in private gardens.”

Erez Barkai, national forests clerk at the Agriculture Ministry, one of the resolution’s sponsors, said in a written response that the office of the Forests Clerk is responsible for protecting Israel’s trees. It “acts to reduce the number of trees cut down each year, preventing the removal of thousands of trees, through knowledge and balance between the need to develop infrastructures and the need to protect trees and their obvious benefits.”

Tree conservations have criticized the Cabinet resolution for failing to address the mass fellings effectively. One proposal called for the Interior Ministry to publish a legislative memorandum amending the Planning and Building Law within 90 days, so that consulting the Forests Clerk shall be the default requirement in any plan calling for chopping or relocating mature trees, Haaretz reported.

Another weakness in the plan is funding, or the lack thereof, left for the 2023-24 budget talks. In the meantime, there is only vague mention of “diverse funding sources – public, philanthropic and business.” Government ministries are levied with only half a million shekels per year for mapping, with a few more millions from the Environmental Protection Ministry. The economic benefit of planting trees, meanwhile, is projected at 3.6 billion shekels.