The species come from the Agrotechnical School and the Agroecological Forest Nursery of the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences.
La Universidad Nacional de Rosario delivered 6000 native trees since the call “Protector and Protector of Native Species within your home” corresponding to the Tree Program of the Environmental Policy Area began. On this occasion, a batch of one thousand copies was delivered in Plaza San Martín to those who had previously registered.
The UNR Tree Program is a device of the University's Environmental Policy Area that is incorporated into initiatives of local governments, non-governmental organizations and international organizations, with the objective of planting one billion trees around the world.
“This is an initiative of the Public University to continue adding actions that promote greater care for our environment. Since we took office, we have made all the resources available to the UNR to prioritize this issue in the collective debate. We seek not only to contribute through scientific development and the production of knowledge, but also with actions, in the generation of a culture of care,” said rector Franco Bartolacci.
The Rector stressed that this particular call is part of the University's ability to ensure that citizens commit to the care of green spaces. “With the beginning of the second administration we decided to prioritize an area of environmental sustainability and that will allow us to multiply all environmental policies inside and outside our community. This is a key point: we have added 6000 trees distributed since the program was launched and we are going to continue working in this direction.”
On this occasion, various species of native trees were delivered: sen de campo, ceibillo, guava, aguaribay, acacia visco, cina cina, algarrobo blanco, ceibo, ñandubay, jacarandá, timbó blanco, timbó colorado and tala. They are intended to be planted in private homes.
The program aims to disseminate the best care practices for our trees, the commitment to form an education in environmental awareness, and the sustainable development of our planet, that is, to be able to fully cover current needs without compromising the ability to future generations to satisfy theirs, guaranteeing the balance between economic growth, environmental care and social well-being.
The University opened a list so that community members can access the adoption of a tree, which comes accompanied with instructions that indicate the care methods and growth processes of the specimens. “We are very happy with the response of the citizens. We have a traceability system by which we know its destination, and thus be able to monitor the situation of each one we give up for adoption and corroborate that it is being cared for accordingly,” commented Matias De Bueno, head of the Policy Area. Environmental and added: “All this work can be done thanks to the fact that UNR has the environmental issue as one of its management pillars. We have already delivered 6000 copies since the program began.”
Native species
Although the forest species that spread the most among urban trees were the exotic ones, this program suggests using species native to the province such as carob, ibirá-pitá, willows, oreja de negro, quebrachos, ibirá, logging or blackheads.
They provide ecosystem services such as the production of oxygen or the reduction of ambient temperature, serve as a habitat for various animal and plant species, and reduce the impacts produced by some anthropic activities such as noise and pollution.
Likewise, they contribute to the control of water and wind erosion of the soils, their phytoremediation and the protection of urbanizations. It should be noted that these species make more efficient use of local resources and their demands are lower, in most cases, than those of exotic species.
The World Health Organization recommends that cities can offer between 10 and 15 m2 of green spaces per inhabitant, distributed proportionally according to population density. The city of Rosario has almost 12 m2, above the rest of the large Argentine cities such as Córdoba (7 m2) or the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (3,5 m2).
In addition, the city has approximately 420 trees (an average of 13 per block), among which species such as ash, banana or privet stand out. The goal of the local state in the medium term is to double that number, reaching one million trees by 2030.
However, Argentina is the second largest focus of deforestation in the entire continent, barely surpassed by that which takes place in the Amazon, and one of the 10 highest rates in the world, according to the FAO. 52,8% of deforestation (close to 100.000 hectares) occurred in areas that the forest law classifies as category I (red) and II (yellow), that is, in areas where it is expressly prohibited to do so.
Journalist: Gonzalo J. García/Photographer: Camila Casero.