6
at $3.6 billion. Information on the structure
and functions of the urban forest can be used
to improve and augment support for urban
forest management programmes and to
integrate urban forests within plans to improve
environmental quality in the Washington, D.C.
area
12,13
.
Tree planting has been proposed by the
municipal government as a measure to reduce
air pollution in Beijing, the capital of China
14
.
China accepted that urban forest is a kind of
infrastructure and promoted urban forestry. The
Shanghai government started to rent out land for
urban forestry purposes to private companies
based on a contract. According to the contract
between the government and a company, 60%
of the land rented by the company must be used
to grow forest, and the remaining 40% can be
used for establishing a tree seedling and flowers
nursery which can bring commercial benefit to
the company within a short period of time. In
addition, in order to support private companies
in establishing urban forests, the government
also provides certain economic supplements
to the companies according to the area of the
land rented. After 10 years, the government
gets these forests back from the companies. In
this way, the government solves the issue of a
shortage of funds
15
.
The Government realizes that the tree cover can
play a key role in ameliorating and maintaining
the healthy environment in city. FRI, Dehradun
has estimated in a study that one hectare of
woodland (about 1,000 trees) absorbs 3.7 tones
of carbon dioxide from atmosphere and gives
out 2.5 tones of oxygen per day. A full grown
Peepal tree (
Ficus religiosa
), for instance, is
estimated to give 600 kg of oxygen in 24 hours
16
.
3. Tree Cover in Urban Areas
In majority of the urban areas throughout the
world, the tree cover is declining and impervious
cover is increasing due to the demand of
the land for development. Amongst all the
capitals of the states, Gandhinagar, Bangalore,
Chandigadh, New Delhi, Guwahati, Dehradun,
Tree cover in Gandhinagar city-houses and office buildings have adequate tree cover
