The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) says that it has drawn up “internal” guidelines on its decision-making process for the possible relocation or felling of trees affected by public construction projects.
The bureau says that the criteria for IAM officials’ decisions to relocate or fell the affected trees include the respective trees’ state of health.
IAM President José Fonseca Tavares made the remarks in a reply to a written interpellation made by directly-elected lawmaker Ron Lam U Tou at the end of June. Tavares made the reply early this month, the copy of which was sent by Lam’s office to the media on Sunday.
In his written interpellation, Lam asked the government why it had decided to fell trees where a number of public projects had got off the ground, instead of relocating them or studying the possibility of keeping them intact.
In his reply to Lam’s written interpellation, Tavares said that according to its internal guidelines, the bureau will assess whether the trees affected by public construction projects can be relocated in line with a number of factors, such as the respective trees’ structural safety and their state of health, as well as whether they have been infected with serious diseases.
Tavares said that if the bureau has concluded that it is suitable to relocate the trees, the respective projects’ building contractors are then required to hire a horticulture company to relocate the trees to “suitable” locations in compliance with the bureau’s standards.
According to Tavares, the respective companies will then be required to carry out the maintenance of the trees for one year.
Tavares also said that when the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) is planning and designing a public project that would require the relocation of trees, it will study with IAM officials the proper measures to ensure the relocation of the trees.
Moreover, Tavares also said that the government has relocated 87 trees affected by its ongoing construction of a rainwater pumping station and box culverts in the southern area of the Inner Harbour district.
This file photo taken in early July shows a public bus driving past a section of Rua do Comandante João Belo in Fai Chi Kei where horsetail trees had been felled. – Photo courtesy of TDM
