Sylvain Sonnet / Getty ImagesSeveral trees, some of which are centenarians, present at the foot of the Eiffel Tower could be cut down by the town hall of Paris as part of a real estate project. What ulcerates the defenders of the environment (photo of illustration). ENVIRONMENT – It is a business which makes howl the defenders of the environment. For a few days at the end of April, associations and activists have been mobilizing in Paris while the capital’s town hall plans to cut down dozens of trees near the Eiffel Tower to build commercial premises and other restaurants. by the 2024 Olympic Games. However, if the project plans to replant more than 200 trees and even to create “a new green lung in the heart of Paris”, as the town hall explains on its site, the argument is hardly convincing. its detractors. Among them, the association France nature environnement, which presented its arguments in a video published by the online media Brut. Trees sometimes centenarians, soon felled to make way for a real estate project. It takes place at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and here is why it is debated. pic.twitter.com/ogf6gZkkBj— Brut FR (@brutofficiel) April 29, 2022“They tell us that they are going to plant a lot more trees than they cut, but this is an argument that does not suit us not at all”, explains Philippe Khayat, the representative of the association. In particular, he denounces a recurring and rarely kept promise in this kind of project, with the planting of young trees which risk dying due to an environment less and less conducive to their development, or even a growth time of several tens of years to “provide the same benefits” as the sometimes century-old trees that are going to be felled. The town hall of Paris wants to “save” certain emblematic treesAlways at Brut, Emmanuel Grégoire, Anne Hidalgo’s first deputy in charge of environmental issues in the city of Paris, responds by ensuring that these cuts correspond to the “life cycle” of the trees. trees, which would therefore have to be felled. And he goes on to defend the construction project, which must be at the service of tourists who visit the Eiffel Tower, and which is supposed to fit into the landscape plan within the framework of the garden that currently exists. All this without closing the door to that certain exceptional and particularly emblematic trees can be saved. An element already advanced in a tweet published by the first deputy on Thursday, in which Emmanuel Grégoire added: “This project will improve the working conditions of the agents and reception of the public of the Eiffel Tower and the gardens.” This project will improve the working conditions of the agents and reception of the public of the @LaTourEiffel and the gardens. We are studying ways to avoid the felling of the 2 trees mentioned. 222 additional trees will be planted on this site.— Emmanuel Grégoire (@egregoire) April 28, 2022Arguments which intervene when the mobilization has already started on social networks, in particular through the journalist and environmental activist Hugo Clément, who had quickly challenged the Parisian authorities and launched a petition. Let’s sign the petition massively to ask @Anne_Hidalgo to stop cutting old trees around the Eiffel Tower! Every tree counts and replanting does not compensate. 👊 https://t.co/ZFNqpuRIl5— Hugo Clément (@hugoclement) April 29, 2022Tree cutting, a subject in ParisIn the columns of Figaro, Bernard Seydoux, the president of the association of friends of the Champ-de -Mars, also denounces “false” arguments on the part of the town hall, which put forward impressive figures for the creation of green spaces within the framework of this project. According to him, the “vegetated roofs” are in particular counted and will therefore not really replace the lawns which will give way to office spaces, lockers for tourists from the Eiffel Tower and cafes and restaurants. This in a context where , in recent weeks, the issue of tree felling has been widely invited into the Parisian political debate. Several associations have, for example, denounced cuts at Porte de Montreuil or in the Bois de Vincennes, both located in the south-east of Paris. For its part, the town hall claims to have already planted thousands of trees and Anne Hidalgo’s program provides for a total of 170,000 plantations by the end of her mandate, in 2026, as our colleagues from BFM Paris recently recalled. 🆘 Porte de Montreuil, 195 threatened trees, 76 already felled behind the palisades so that no one sees the carnage. All this for 60,000 m2 of offices. An urban project the opposite of ecological coherence #stop@Anne_Hidalgo@EmmanuelMacronhttps:// t.co/8JBG0FnQNVpic.twitter.com/BbaS4bCoOW— GNSA 🌳 National Tree Monitoring Group (@GNSA_arbres) April 25, 2022Bois de Vincennes: tree cutting, management… Elected officials from Val-de-Marne demand to to be consulted by the City of Paris
➡️ https://t.co/u9xHfPx4gBpic.twitter.com/9VFuGIyQMY— Le Parisien | Paris (@LeParisien_75) April 28, 2022Discover L’enver