The words of a popular Vietnamese song about Hanoi celebrates the
city's tree-lined streets in autumn – "bright yellow celtis, tropical
almonds with red leaves standing next to each other; old streets and
ancient houses with brown tiled roofs."
Written by
late composer Trinh Cong Son, one of the most popular song writers of
the 20th century, Nho mua thu Hanoi (Missing
Hanoi in Autumn) has for decades provided an iconic image of the capital.
The words have been imprinted on the minds of every true Hanoian – and those who have visited or long to see the city.
The presence of old trees shading and colouring the capital's streets has inspired dozens of songs about Hanoi .
However, the lack of a master plan for the protection of road-side
trees and poor management methods continue to threaten the very fabric
of the city.
Nguyen Duc Manh, from State-owned
Hanoi Park and Tree Company's Planning and Technique Department,
says no specific research has been conducted on street trees, although
they make up a major part of the city's green areas.
Associate Professor Dam Thu Trang, dean of the Civil Engineering
University's Landscape Architecture Faculty, says tree numbers and
locations are recorded in a haphazard way and that "digital technology
should have been in place by now."
More than 44,000
trees, belonging to 70 species, shade hundreds of roads and streets in
central Hanoi . Many of them are more than a century old.
Andreas Jarfe, an arborist from Germany , says he is amazed by the greenery in Hanoi .
"Street trees in Hanoi are beautiful, old, unique. I know all the
names of the trees in Germany but not many here," Jarfe says.
Duong Duc Tien, a biology professor, says many of the city's trees, often overlooked by Hanoians, are rare and valuable.
Despite the continual loss of trees due to urbanisation, their number
has risen gradually year by year, says Manh, adding that there were
about 42,000 in Hanoi 's nine districts ten years ago.
On average, the city plants between 1,500 and 2,000 new trees a year,
and spends about 4 billion VND (210,000 USD) annually maintaining them,
Manh says.
To boost survival rates, the municipal
People's Committee on July 1 raised the special care period for newly
planted trees from two to five years.
Meanwhile, mature and established trees are inspected and pruned monthly or quarterly depending on their condition.
Trang says the effort expended by city officials and the Hanoi Park
and Tree Company to maintain Hanoi 's trees is "tremendous".
Despite urbanisation, Pham Van Khanh, deputy director of Hanoi 's
Natural Resources and Environment Department, says every effort is made
to keep the city green. "Wherever possible, new trees are planted along
the city's streets," Khanh says.
However, despite the valiant efforts of the authorities, street trees struggle to survive in the modern age.
"Trees in Hanoi face far greater problems than their cousins in
developed parts of the world," Trang says. This is because of the
ever-expanding underground infrastructure of the streets, which limits
the choice of trees and makes planting difficult.
"I
can see Hanoi has a similar problem to Germany but more severe –
the trees are struggling because of the shortage of space for root
development," Jarfe says.
The narrowness of the many
short streets and inadequate coordination among different sectors have
also proved a challenge, according to Trang.
The
landscape architect said Hanoi 's streets were traditionally lined
with one or two species of tree. Now, she said, trees are planted almost
haphazardly and are rarely in keeping with the local architecture.
According to a Park and Tree Company report, typically 7 to 15
different tree species now line each of Hanoi 's street, and in some
places 18, instead of one or two only to make the street unique as it
used to be.
Renowned lyricist Hoang Hiep used to
walk along Nguyen Du Street hand-in-hand with his girlfriend. While
away from his beloved part of the city, he penned: "Nights full of the
fragrance of pulai [sinensix] tree blossom," for the song Nho ve Hanoi
(Thinking of Hanoi).
Similarly, Lo Duc street was
renowned for its tall dark-trunked thingan trees (hopea odorata), Ly
Thuong Kiet street for its flamboyant, Phan Dinh Phung, Le Thanh Tong
and Tran Hung Dao streets for their sau trees (dracontomelum), Tran Nhan
Tong street for styrax, and Ton Duc Thang Street for African Mahogany
(khaya senegalensis).
Despite their love for
Vietnam , Trang and Tien admit that Hanoi owes much of its beauty to
the efforts of the French a century ago.
Tree planting nowadays is in its infancy, and landscape design leaves much to be desired, Tien says.
Maintaining a city's arboreal integrity comes at a price – each tree
planted in a German city costs about 1,000 USD and takes between 15 to
20 years to mature, Jarfe says.
Although costs are lower in Vietnam and rainfall more plentiful, maintaining Hanoi 's 40,000 trees is no mean feat.
"The Park and Tree company has dozens of workers, but they cannot
cope," Tien says, adding that the best solution would be for the State
to join hands with the public.
It is a view supported by Nguyen Thi Ngan Giang, who lives on Quan Thanh street .
"Green trees have always been part of my street and my life. I would be delighted to help protect them," she says.
Trang says the State should hand over the trees it has planted to
local residents, who would then be responsible for their upkeep.
"If the trees belonged to the residents they would do their best to protect them," she says.
Tien believes if that stratagy is adopted, residents would be less
likely to nail signs to tree trunks, dump rubbish nearby, or hack away
at inconvenient branches.
Whatever city leaders
decide to do, Tien hopes with all his heart that urbanisation does not
come at the expense of Hanoi 's colourful heritage./.
