Madrid To Plant Urban Forest In Memory Of Covid Victims

Madrid´s City Council has announced that it will honour the coronavirus victims of the region with a memorial forest.

Madrid´s vice mayoress Begoña Villacís, planted the first tree – an oak in a ceremony held yesterday in the designated area for the forest in the Campo de las Naciones.

Villacis said that those families of victims will be able to plant a tree in memory of their loved ones in the proposed ” Bosque Metropolitano” ( Metropolitan Forest).

The Metropolitan Forest rejuvenation project will “transform” Madrid with the largest environmental green initiative  in Europe with the planting of 450.000 trees which will be able to absorb more than 170.000 tons of CO2 once they had matured.

The Campo de las Naciones district forms part of the Bosque Metropolitano designated areas and is the chosen zone for the memorial forest.

The area which totals six hectares straddling the Hortaleza and Valdebebas districts will have 14 varieties of trees, with nearly 2,000 planted in the first phase.

Side by side will be a virtual space where each victim will be assigned a tree with their name.

This council today announced a civic competition to name the memorial forest.

To date the Madrid region has recorded 11,449 deaths from Covid out of a national toll of 47,019.

To participate in the civic competition fill in the online form here: Madrid Memorial Forest.

Share The Madrid Metropolitan: The only Madrid English language newspaper