Extra adds children to reforest the city

At nine years old, Camila Maldonado, a student at “Ignacio Ramos Praslow” elementary school, adopted a tree. It’s about a strawberry guava bush to plant at home. “I would like to take care of something. I had a puppy, but we had to give it up for adoption.”

The minor received an adoption certificate from Bosque Urbano de Extra, which for the first time included educational institutions in its reforestation campaigns, said Juan Arturo Covarrubias Valenzuela, president of the civil association.

The goal is to make Guadalajara the most wooded city in the country. And to get it, she promised to donate 3.5 million trees in the next 10 years.

He pointed out that annually they will deliver an average of a thousand trees a day, in order to reach the goal, and thus double the forest mass of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.

The association renewed the strategic alliance with the Municipalities of Guadalajara and Zapopan, for which it also added the Secretary of Education of Jalisco. Another purpose is that in the next three years 300 thousand trees will be donated to each municipality.

In addition, one thousand workshops on ecological culture will be given in the same number of schools, with a reach of one million students in each municipality.

Pablo Lemus, mayor of Guadalajara, stressed to the students present at the event that it is not a process of “giving trees”, but rather an adoption. “You sign a commitment letter where you say: ‘I promise to take care of my tree, to water it, to be aware of it’”.

He added that during the delivery of the free school kits, a tree adoption stand with Extra will also be installed, “so that this can have greater depth.”

Juan José Frangie, municipal president of Zapopan, agreed that the important thing is to take care of the specimens, since a culture is created between generations.

For its part, Juan Carlos Flores MiramontesSecretary of Education in Jalisco, stressed that The students are the protagonists of this process.. And the schools are “extraordinary allies” to reach the goal.

They launch a campaign for the care of water in the city

The association seeks to raise awareness among children in Guadalajara and Zapopan to save up to 40 million liters of water per day

In addition to the actions to promote ecological culture carried out by the Bosque Urbano de Extra association, a campaign will be added to raise awareness regarding the care and saving of water.

Juan Arturo Covarrubias Valenzuela, president of the association, declared that during the next three years environmental education workshops will be held in schools in Guadalajara and Zapopan, which will impact a large number of students annually.

“We want two million children to help us save water. We are going to ask each child to turn off the tap at the time they take a bath and lather up. This will allow us to save 20 liters of water per day per child. We can save 40 million liters of water a day”, she detailed.

Covarrubias Valenzuela stressed that the association seeks to contribute to the strategies undertaken by the authorities to deal with the shortage of water that occurs in many neighborhoods in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.

“It will be through the workshops. The campaign to raise awareness of the ecological issue is permanent, but now we are going to include water care as a high priority, because in Guadalajara we have a serious water problem and we have to solve it together”.

Juan Carlos Flores Miramontes, head of the Jalisco Education Secretariat (SEJ), stressed that emphasis is placed on educating through something meaningful. Therefore, each school grade has 10 integrating projects, closely related to the purposes of the work led by Bosque Urbano Extra.

“We have virtual workshops on urban gardens, preservation of the environment, of water. Water is fundamental and, from education, we have to continue promoting these workshops that in our case have reached more than 500 thousand children”.

Last year, the city presented serious water supply problems, causing the Intermunicipal System of Potable Water and Sewage Services (SIAPA) to suspend service in some neighborhoods of the metropolis.

In March of last year, through his social networks, the Governor stated that the problem of water scarcity worsened during the pandemic due to the new coronavirus, since consumption of the liquid increased up to 11% in metropolitan householdsadded to the fact that the Calderón Dam registered very low levels of its historical level, as reported by this medium.

Background curtain

Set survival record

Of the total number of trees given up for adoption by Bosque Urbano de Extra, the level of survival reached 95%, a record figure and one of the highest in the world to improve the environmental conditions of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (ZMG).

Juan Arturo Covarrubias, president of the Extra Civil Association, explains that the key to success is the high commitment of the people who carry out the adoptions, who sign a symbolic contract representing the responsibility they acquire.

“It is given to them, but it is not free because they need care. For example, that in dry seasons they pour water on him or, if he gets sick, they procure it. The success is that the adopted tree becomes part of the families”.

Copies are delivered for adoption at municipal events and at strategic points close to citizens, such as schools, tianguis, public transport stations, shopping malls and sports units, as well as in activations and nurseries.

Last year they delivered 300 thousand trees for adoption, despite having been a year affected by the health contingency.

Every year, Bosque Urbano de Extra carries out one of the largest communication campaigns designed to promote ecology, avoid littering in the forest and prevent fires.

The birth of the first Urban Forest of the city was undertaken as a result of the La Primavera fire in 2005 and the loss of trees in 12 thousand hectares burned.

keys

The compromises

With the renewal of the strategic alliance to expand the delivery of more trees for adoption, Bosque Urbano de Extra announced some points of agreement reached with the Municipalities of Guadalajara and Zapopan for the next three years.

The association will deliver a total of 600 thousand trees to Guadalajara and Zapopan: 100 thousand a year to each municipality.

Three thousand workshops will be given in each municipality: one thousand workshops per year in the school communities that will reach one million students per year, in each municipality. “The workshops will promote ecological culture on various topics such as caring for water and the environment”, reported Bosque Urbano de Extra.

Most of the trees will be given up for adoption to approximately half a million families. “It has been verified that they are the ones who take better care of them, since in the weekly measurements carried out by Bosque Urbano de Extra.”

Strategy

Concentrate reforestation in the East

As part of the strategies to make the city the most wooded in the country, it is projected that more than 70% of the trees that Bosque Urbano Extra donate to the city council of Guadalajara in the next few years, they are planted in the neighborhoods of the Eastern Zone. The mayor of Guadalajara, Pablo Lemus Navarro, commented that the neighborhoods in that area have to be strengthened with trees. “That Huentitán can have more trees… Oblates, San Andrés, Tetlán, Analco; even our traditional neighborhoods, like Mexicaltzingo.” He recalled that Guadalajara has been distinguished for the second consecutive year as Tree City. “It is a very important distinction for us. Not only because of the recognition given to the work on the environment, but also because of the commitments we have made to continue growing as a Tree City”. For this reason, he said, the importance of renewing the collaboration alliances with Bosque Urbano Extra. “This is the seventh year we have worked together.” Juan Arturo Covarrubias Valenzuela, president of the Extra Urban Forest Association, also commented that they have located around 100 colonies in Zapopan, which require more reforestation actions. “We are going to focus our efforts on giving families up for adoption where trees are most needed in the city.” Regarding the pandemic due to the new coronavirus, he commented that it did affect the delivery of trees a little. “We are already resuming and duplicating the effort, but good strategies have also come out, like this one of reaching a thousand families, because reaching two million students will allow us to speak directly to them about the value of caring for the tree.”

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