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28 March 2015

Hanoi Citizens Protest Tree-Felling Plan

By Helen Clark

Plans to chop down the trees that line the city’s historic streets have met with a vigorous response.
Public goods such as trees and parks can provoke passionate reactions in people. Witness the Gezi Park protests in Turkey in the middle of 2013, which protested the demolition of the large park to make way for a shopping center. In Hanoi, there have been small but unusual protests against the city authorities’ plans to cut down an astonishing 6,700 of the trees that line the streets in a $3.4 million project.

The trees are old and sick, said the government. Not that many of them, respond its critics. The government also said many of the trees, some of which are more than 100 years old, are of different kinds on the one street and are thus “a poor aesthetic choice.” Facebook protest pages have been started and experts have opined that the plan to replant is unconvincing. Also, what will be done with all the timber, much of which is valuable?

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