Stay updated with breaking news from Ahmed Elseidi. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
In Cairo’s busy streets, towering palms, purple-blossomed jacarandas and mature sycamore trees provide precious respite from the midday sun and a glimpse of green in the tangle of concrete and cars.
Protests by Cairo residents and environmentalists over tree-felling come as Egypt’s government prepares to host the COP27 climate summit in November
But as Egypt's government powers ahead with ambitious urban development plans https://news.trust.org/item/20220120054544-mldfm, including road and rail links for a new administrative capital, thousands of Cairo's trees have been cut down, angering residents and green activists. "Cairo is already suffocating," said Rim Hamdy, a botany professor at Cairo University in the nearby city of Giza who has been petitioning authorities to save a centuries-old sycamore tree near the university.
Grand development projects in Cairo, including the construction of huge new highways, are coming at the expense of the desert city’s trees. Now, residents are pushing back against the government to protect their arboreal neighbors.
CAIRO (AP) — A few months ago, Choucri Asmar decided he wasn't ready to give up hope. So he led a group of residents in “a peaceful demonstration to protect the trees” of his Cairo neighborhood. Egyptian authorities were planning to clear out a large avenue of ficus, acacia and palm trees — part of sweeping urban redevelopment projects that are transforming much of historic Cairo.