A new wood between Lecce and San Cataldo, to regenerate the landscape of one of the urban edges of the city and promote the fight against climate change and the reduction of fine dust particles: this is the project advanced by the Municipality of Lecce, the Foundation for the management of the University Botanical Garden - Botanical Garden of Salento and Arbolia, the benefit company created by Snam and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Foundation, to develop green areas in Italian cities and territories.

The project will lead to the re-naturalization of an area located close to the eastern ring road of the city, in line with typical local plant models and through the planting of over 4000 young plants pertaining to the native tree and shrub species. The municipal council approved the memorandum of understanding that will be signed with Arbolia, which describes the operational phases that will mark the construction of this first major urban forestry project in the city.

The five-year protocol envisages the sharing of the choice of lands on which to carry out the interventions and the drafting of the project, by forestry technicians supported by the Foundation in scientific supervision and botanical consultancy. The procurement of the resources for the implementation of the intervention will be undertaken by Arbolia, which will also ensure the ordinary maintenance of the plant for the first two years, passing to the municipality the witness of the care of the new green area from the third year onwards. 

Operations will take place on lands both owned by the municipality and the Foundation (which welcomed the proposal of the Municipality and Arbolia) and marks the start of a new season of collaboration between the city of Lecce and the Snam and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Foundation benefit company, which can be extended to further medium / long-term development actions in other areas as well. As part of the afforestation of public and private land in which it is engaged throughout the country, Arbolia aims to contribute to the improvement of the environmental conditions of cities through the planting of 3 million trees by 2030, together with the absorption of about 200 thousand tons of CO₂ per year.

"The signing of this protocol is a precious opportunity to cooperate for the sustainability of our urban landscapes, establishing a partnership that sees us committed to working towards new forms of territory transformation, which do not consume soil and natural resources, but on the contrary work to strengthen them, increasing nature where it is fragmented and threatened - declares the Councilor for Urban Planning, Rita Miglietta – This, in the Botanical Garden, is a project that marks the start of a process that we believe will lead to the definition of other areas inserted in other fields to be used for increase in the wooded parts of the municipal area, so that urban forestation, as we have also defined in the resolution for the restart of the PUG, becomes a part of the city’s ecological infrastructure contributing to improving the territory and community well-being. I thank Arbolia, the Mayor who strongly wanted this project, the President of the Botanical Garden Foundation and its Board of Directors and technical committee members, who accepted the Administration's proposal to nominate the Botanical Garden to host this first project, which also aims,  to support the Garden in becoming a more porous and open place for the city, (the wood will in fact be open to the community), and to increase its vegetable capital."

"This agreement - comments Salvatore Ricco, CEO of Arbolia - is the result of a fruitful dialogue started some time ago with the Municipality of Lecce and the Botanical Garden Foundation and of a shared sensitivity on the importance of greenery for the cities’ well-being. Thanks to this synergy, we hope to be able to, in a short time, give life to an urban forestation intervention with a wide variety of tree and shrub species and to further embellish the Botanical Garden,  heritage for the entire Salento community. Lecce could be the first city in Southern Italy to host a forest created by Arbolia. With initiatives like this, consistent with our mission, we want to make a concrete contribution to improving the quality of air and life in the Italian territories. "

"We warmly welcome the intervention promoted by the Municipality and Arbolia, which represents a concrete and virtuous action of landscape and environmental improvement, in line with the actions implemented in recent years by the Foundation to provide the city with a vegetable garden botanist oriented towards the conservation and development of plant biodiversity - says Professor Luigi De Bellis, president of the University Botanical Garden - Orto Botanico del Salento."