Madrid, a new green lung

"Madrid’s city planners have a new vision for the future . . . constructing what is, in effect, a 75-kilometre-long Metropolitan Forest... the most ambitious initiative of its kind in Europe today... The plan is to create a new “green lung” for Madrid by planting 1.5 million trees, mostly saplings, around the city’s perimeter, along with a number of eco-friendly bridges, as well as leisure and recreational centres. The Metropolitan Forest will connect existing parks with a parallel project – a 23-kilometre-long ‘Forest Avenue’ for cyclists and pedestrians that will provide access to schools, offices and also Madrid’s Barajas Airport. It’s estimated that the newly planted trees, which cover an area of 4,000 hectares, will absorb more than 45,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. In about 20 years’ time, once the trees have reached maturity, the forest should have taken more than 800,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the city’s atmosphere. The trees will all be species native to Madrid, such as elm, oak, ash and holly."