Aix en Provence, France
City population: 354452
Duration: 2016 – ongoing
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Meso-scale: Regional, metropolitan and urban level, Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level, Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Central Business District / City Centre
Last updated: October 2021

After more than one 100 trees were slaughtered in a few months upon order of the city in 2016, the association "Défenses des Arbres en Pays d'Aix" was created by multiple NGOs with the purpose of saving the plant heritage of Aix-en-Provence. Their main goal was to encourage the city's council to establish a "Charter for trees" dedicated to the city of Aix en Provence (Ref. 1). The work of the association was useful as the city decided to engage in a new charter, and prepare a new planting season with 64 trees (in 2016) (Ref. 4). The Charter was developed in 2017 (Ref. 6) and an environmental management plan for activities was developed in 2018 (Ref. 7).

Green vault at Cours Mirabeau
Green vault at Cours Mirabeau
Source: https://www.laprovence.com/article/edition-aix-pays-daix/4194514/les-defenseurs-des-arbres-tirent-la-sonnette-dalarme.html

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Alley or street trees and other street vegetation

Key challenges

  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity restoration
  • Habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
  • Inclusive governance
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Social justice and equity
  • Environmental and climate justice
  • Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
  • Preservation of natural heritage

Focus

Maintenance and management of urban nature, Strategy, plan or policy development, Improved governance of green or blue areas

Project objectives

-Saving the tree heritage of the city and fight against unjustified tree cutting (the city council has ordered and already cut down many trees around the city without transparency, therefore the association has sued the city to court). Objectives of the association: -Ensure the mission of the expert appointed by the Administrative Court (financing and follow up) - Pressure on the city council to adopt a "charter for trees" as is done for instance in other cities such as Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Marseille, etc ... -Set up a structure of dialogue between city council and citizens for better management of trees in the city (Ref. 1)

Implementation activities

"Several actions from the association have already been taken: -Public information meeting -Animation of the meeting points every Saturday morning in the market since April 2016 -Edition and publication of the "Preacher of the Palace" printed at 3,000 copies -Establishment of an online petition (4,814 signatures at closing of petition, the objective was to obtain 5000 signatures) -Civic demonstration against the felling of all the plane trees of the square -Obtaining a favorable court decision from the Administrative Court of Marseille appointing an independent expert -Creation of a blog: aixenarbres.fr" (Ref. 1) According to the interview of a city's council representative: -The city engaged to create a new charter for trees and plant 64 trees in 2016 (Ref. 4)

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Protect and enhance urban habitats
  • Reduce negative impacts and avoid the alteration/damage of ecosystem
  • Protect species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect species
  • Undertake specific measures to protect valued species
  • Means for conservation governance
  • Manage biological resources for conservation and sustainable use
  • Raise public awareness
  • Public engagement

Biodiversity restoration:

  • Rehabilitate and restore damaged or destroyed ecosystems
  • Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)
  • Restore valued species
  • Restore ecological connectivity
  • Public engagement

Main beneficiaries

  • Non-government organisation/Civil Society
  • Citizens or community groups
  • Other

Governance

Management set-up

  • Led by non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Non-government organisation/civil society
  • District/neighbourhood association

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
  • Crowd-sourcing/Crowd-funding/Participatory budget
  • Taskforce groups
  • Dissemination of information and education
  • Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
  • Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
  • Co-management/Joint management
  • Citizen oversight (e.g. boards, advisory)

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

Several associations are part of this project to create this partnership to save trees of the city: -APADEM which works for the safeguarding, defense, development of the vitality and dynamism of the inner city of Aix-en-Provence intramural as well as the support and support to its inhabitants and users. -ARIE (association for the development and economic interests of the city center) -Colibris en pays d’Aix (Association for nature preservation) -Aux Actes Citoyens (Citizens mobilization association) -Auxarbrescitoyens (Association of citizens to save trees) (Ref. 1) A study has been carried out by experts for supporting the court case. Also "This study was carried out in collaboration with MM. Daniel CHASTEL, Engineer Horticulture, President of GD.O.N. and Francis TESTE, landscaper D.P.L.G." (Ref. second uploaded document "Expert Notice")

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (The creation of this intervention (meaning the creation of an association of different actors to save trees), has been implemented because there wasn't actually a local regulation to protect the tree in the city. Therefore, it is because there was no regulations implemented by the city that this intervention was created.(Ref 1) )

Financing

Total cost

€10,000 - €50,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Crowdfunding

Type of funding

  • Donations

Non-financial contribution

Type of non-financial contribution
  • Provision of goods
  • Provision of labour
  • Provision of other services
  • Other
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
  • Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
  • Other

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
  • Increase in protected green space areas
  • Reduced biodiversity loss
  • Increased number of species present
  • Increased ecological connectivity across regeneration sites and scales

Economic impacts

  • Increase of green jobs (e.g. paid employment positions)

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Improved access to urban green space
  • Increased involvement of locals in the management of green spaces
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Protection of historic and cultural landscape / infrastructure
  • Increased awareness of flora and fauna as culturally and historically meaningful
  • Increased appreciation for natural spaces

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts, Achieved impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Yes

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

1. Apadem (2016). "Collectif de Défense des Arbres en Pays d'Aix". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).
2. Website of the association "Collectif de Défence des Arbres en Pays d'Aix". Newsletter available on this page. Website not available in 2020.
3. Petition regarding the trees saving plan and the request of a "Tree Charter" for the city to implement and follow. "Sauvons les arbres d’Aix-en-Provence". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).
4. Danielides, Julien (2016). "La mairie reconnaît un retard, un manque de communication et dit "oui" à la charte". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).
5. Faillard, Dominique (2017). "Alerte Rouge". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).
6. Aix-en-Provence (2017). "Charte de l’arbre d’Aix-en-Provence". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).
7. Danielides, Julien (2016). "Aix : les défenseurs des arbres tirent la sonnette d'alarme". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).
8. Durand-Vial, Stéphanie (2018). "Abattage des arbres à Aix, le service Espaces verts ne veut pas reproduire les erreurs du passé". Available at: Source link (Accessed: Jul 09 2020).