Environment. With Custodismi, citizens and citizens help the green heritage of trees and plants grow
Environment. With Custodismi, citizens and citizens help the green heritage of trees and plants grow
Grandi: "Initiative that allows citizens to take care, in their own courtyard or on their own balcony, of a plant that will be planted in the nine municipalities next autumn". There are 2.000 young plants available to look after
Milan, March 10 2022 – In view of World Forest Day and the first day of spring, the Municipality of Milan, through the Forestami project, launches "Custodiscimi", the joint initiative with ERSAF and Legambiente Lombardia through which citizens can temporarily become "guardians", at your home, of what will be the future public greenery of the city.
Presenting the initiative this morning at Palazzo Marino, the Councilor for the Environment and Greenery Elena Grandi with Stefano Boeri, President of the Scientific Committee of Forestami and Michela Palestra, Deputy Mayor of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Alessandro Fede Pellone, President of ERSAF, Marzio Marzorati, President of Parco Nord Milano and member of the Regional Directorate of Legambiente Lombardia, and General Simonetta De Guz, Lombardy Carabinieri Forestry Region Command.
Citizens of the Municipality of Milan and of the municipalities of the metropolitan city who decide to participate in "Custodiscimi" will have the opportunity to "trust" one of the 2 thousand forest plants made available and, once it has grown, it will be planted next autumn, together with other forest plants, to increase natural capital and reach three million trees by 2030.
"An initiative that allows us to achieve a double objective – explains councilor Grandi –. The first: to promote a new culture of the environment by raising awareness of citizens to take care of public green spaces, contributing through a small private gesture to implementing a an indispensable public good for the city, thus making it possible to reach the goal of three million trees planted by 2030. The second objective is to directly involve the nine municipalities to identify the neighborhoods and areas where the thousand plants taken into consideration can be planted foster care. A choice that demonstrates the direction of the Administration to choose its own future and its actions in an increasingly participatory and shared manner, listening to people's requests and expectations".
"From the change in our behavior - states Stefano Boeri, President of the Scientific Committee of Forestami - comes a new opportunity for the future. Forestami, like all the most important urban forestry projects in the world, has always had the direct involvement of citizens in its DNA in order to make the objective of three million trees by 2030 everyone's challenge. Guard me, together with the collective planting events that we will continue to propose, is a further concrete step in this direction".
There are a total of 2.000 seedlings waiting to be taken into custody (one thousand destined for the Municipality of Milan and one thousand for the municipalities of the metropolitan city) and come from ERSAF's Curno Nursery. They are of four different species, all native and certified: cherry, English oak, white elm and pado.
"The Custodiscimi initiative is not just a gesture of defense of our natural environment: it is a real commitment towards the next generations – explains Alessandro Fede Pellone, President of ERSAF Lombardia –. Taking care of, growing and preserving the greenery 'of the future' recalls the responsibility of every single citizen. The small plants that will be given into custody are thus the concrete symbol of the care that each of us must have towards a planet that needs to be preserved".
Marzio Marzorati President of Parco Nord Milano and member of the regional management of Legambiente Lombardia which with its network of clubs and volunteers will animate the collection points on March 20th, comments: "I immediately believed that Custodiscimi could be a simple but important opportunity to allow everyone to make their own contribution to the growth of the natural capital of our territory. I think that Custodiscimi can really contribute to the promotion of a network of citizens by pooling widespread energies".
The Custodiscimi initiative is divided into three phases
Reservation and signing of the "Card of custody" of your map
Until March 16th it will be possible to book to become custodians of a forest plan by filling out the form on the website www.forestami.org. At the time of booking it will be possible to choose the pick-up location and each participant will be invited to symbolically sign the "custody agreement", with which they undertake to take care of the assigned forest plant, respecting some simple instructions to make it grow at its best.
Shrinkage
On March 20th (and only during this day) it will be possible to take custody of a forest plant free of charge by going to the collection point chosen at the time of booking (see the list below). Each plant will be accompanied by a kit consisting of a 15cm diameter pot and a 20cm diameter saucer delivered together with 5kg of soil. Keepers will have video tutorials available and a team of experts will be on hand weekly to provide advice and support.
Restitution and plantation
The custodians will be called to take care of the small forest plants, for a period of approximately 8 months, until November 20th when, thanks to the start of the new plantations, the plants will find their home in the territory of the Municipality of Milan and the Metropolitan City of Milan through moments of collective planting.
One thousand plants will be available at city halls and can be collected at the following points:
- TOWN HALL 1 - Hidden farmhouse - Shared Gardens of via Scaldasole – Palazzo Bovara;
- TOWN HALL 2 - Vegetable gardens in via Padova;
- TOWN HALL 3 - San Faustino Gardens;
- TOWN HALL 4 - Nocetum Association;
- TOWN HALL 5 - Cascina Chiesa Rossa and Podere Ronchetto;
- TOWN HALL 6 - Giambellorto, Hidden Shared Garden and Segantini Park Shared Garden;
- TOWN HALL 7 – Boscoincittà;
- TOWN HALL 8 - CNGEI Scout Association;
- TOWN HALL 9 - Cascina Parco Nord Milano and public gardens via Ippocrate.
One thousand plants can be collected from the metropolitan city municipalities participating in the initiative: Bussero (Barzago Family Club), Canegrate (Contrada Baggina Gardens), Colturano (Town Hall), Cesano Boscone (Oasis of the New Born), Cormano (Garden of the Civic Library Paolo Volontè), Cinisello Balsamo (CEA), Cusano Milanino (Bosco di Giulia), Gaggiano (Piazza Daccò), Paderno Dugnano (Istituto Allende), Parabiago (via Volta 4), Trezzano sul Naviglio (Town Hall), Vittuone (Circolo Legambiente ), Vizzolo Predabissi (Party Area).
"The Custodiscimi project – comments Michela Palestra, deputy mayor of the Metropolitan City of Milan – adds to and enriches the various actions already implemented by Forestami, thanks to the active participation of individual citizens, who as custodians will today take delivery of these young plants to have them care and ensure that next autumn the green heritage of the southern Milan agricultural park is increased, which will host them with the creation of new wooded areas".
The presentation of the Custodiscimi a initiative Palazzo Marino it ended with the arrival of the ultracyclist Paola Gianotti who ended her journey in Milan which started on February 25th from Stockholm. During her journey Paola brought with her the plants donated by the Carabinieri Group for biodiversity which were planted in several stages along the way to create a symbolic European forest of M'illumino di meno, the famous radio campaign to which she also adheres Forest me. Upon her arrival, Paola Gianotti together with General Simonetta De Guz, Commander of the Carabinieri Forestry Region of Lombardy and Lieutenant Colonel Silvia Biondini of the National Biodiversity Center of Pieve Santo Stefano, handed over to Councilor Elena Grandi a cutting of the Falcone Tree, a ficus planted in front of the house of Giovanni Falcone and Francesca Morvillo.
After stage a Palazzo Marino, Paola Gianotti, with councilor Grandi, reached the Quarry Park where around 150 children from the Madre Bucchi and Iqbal Masih schools were waiting for her to plant together 60 plants donated by the Carabinieri for biodiversity as part of the project " A tree for the future".
An initiative made possible thanks to the supervision of the Park Director, Cesare Salvetat and the organization of the partners Eicom and Axis, already present in Municipality 7 with extensive dissemination activities to promote the culture of sustainability among the youngest that the Park places quarries at the center of this valorization process.
Updated: 10/03/2022