The Public Gardens Association has begun a collaboration with the online magazine Agronotizie, writing the column “A view on public green”. Roberto Diolaiti, president of the association and director of Environment and Green sector of the Municipality of Bologna, was the author of a detailed and interesting report about the activities of the General States of Urban Green 2020, whose sixth edition was held on 23 November last. The initiative, promoted by the National Committee for the Development of Public Green, was organized in four sessions, which received great participation. During this ‘virtual marathon’ important speakers took turns, together with policy, science, economy, arts, law and social science key actors, as well as with greenery managers, to take stock of the quality of life in the italian cities and of the role that greenery will have in the future.

The first session was dedicated to urban forestry, a subject that our Country has been transversally experiencing for some years. It has been addressed “technically and politically, with particular reference to Article 4 of the so-called ‘Climate Decree’, namely funding from CO2 auctions – Mr Diolaiti notes.  The Ministerial Decree of 9 October 2020 has in fact made available 30 million euros resulting from auction revenues on Ets emission allowance, to realize concrete projects in all the 14 metropolitan cities, enhancing the role of local actors”.

The second session was dedicated to the implementation of phytomass in the city. “In this case, in the perspective of the Recovery Fund and of the relative allocation of about 37% of the total resources to the Green New Deal, with specific action lines that invest precisely in urban forestry – Diolaiti added during his focus -. To this ought to be added that, also in our Country, the push of the private sector and corporate finance have been seeing the importance of this fundamental aspect of our daily life for some time, with the search of the most suitable ways to integrate their actions with public administrations. A new public-private partnership, with absolutely sharable aims and objectives intending to implement strategic actions for Italy”.

The third session was coordinated by the Public Gardens Association and it focused on the renewal of trees in the city,  in order to make the urban arboreal heritage increasingly effective and efficient. “The replacement of trees –Diolaiti underlines – must have the objective of planting trees belonging to botanical species that, more than others, are able to catch CO2 and fine dust, to shade streets, to emit as few volatile compounds as possible and to represent the least possible problem from an allergenic point of view”.

The role of foundations and the contribution of private finance were the focus of the fourth session, which concluded the marathon and saw the participation of big Italian companies managers, with a focus on the creation of a tree bank.

The day after the General States, a meeting dedicated to the importance of greenery, as a function of the well-being of the city, was held with particular interventions on the situation of 2020, with regards to the containment of Covid-19 pandemic.

“The hope – Roberto Diolaiti thus concludes his report for Agronotizie – is that the many participants in the initiative, in their turn, will become spokesmen of what has emerged during the individual sessions and that they will contribute to the diffusion of new directions and strategies, in order to allow everyone to be aligned, in view of a renewed global resilience”.