Trees are not enough
Sustainable urban development in China depends on both the control of pollution and the protection of biodiversity. The importance of the former is now widely accepted, but the latter is still ignored, even by city planners. The wonders of Beijing`s culture are intimately linked with its biodiversity. Central Beijing has 226,000 old-growth trees, and there are 180,000 more in its suburbs. The city is surrounded by rich and diverse ecologies. Baihua Mountain and Wuling Mountain have 1,200 species of higher plants – a natural heritage more precious than any building. London, New York, Paris and Berlin do not have this kind of rich environment. Yet this natural heritage goes ignored.
The planting of trees on urban pavements has not taken ecological factors into consideration and is clearly artificial, monotonous and unreasonably spaced. In city centres, the large numbers of tall buildings and trees lining the streets prevent the flow of air, while in the suburbs more trees are needed. A sad sight, indeed, is the concreting over of the base of the trees, preventing the growth of bushes and grass. The needs of small mammals and birds are not considered. Poplars monopolise the streets of our northern cities – but where are the indigenous shrubs and plants? There is no canopy coverage and lifespan is short, with trees discarded within a couple of decades. There is no consideration of biodiversity.
Cities need to plan for long-term preservation – the older they are, the more valuable. When designing the imperial resort of Chengde, Emperor Kangxi ordered that all existing vegetation be retained. Tragically today`s city planners use only a few commercial varieties, and cities lose their native biodiversity. So some planners turn their eyes to surrounding villages and buy up large trees in great numbers. This means great business for the tree traders, but disaster for trees in rural areas. (In the worst case, rural trees literally fueled the steel-production drive of the Great Leap Forward.) The trend started in Shanghai and spread nationwide, and now almost every city beautification project ships in truckloads of large trees.
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