Hanoi Suspends Uprooting of 6,700 Trees After Public Outcry

The chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee has asked that the plan to fell a quarter of the city’s trees be put on hold following public outcry.

"Chairman Nguyen The Thao has requested the Construction Department as well district authorities and related agencies to suspend the cutting," national broadcaster VTV announced this afternoon, reports Tuoi Tre.

The city’s construction department previously stated that many of the capital’s 29,600 trees are dying, posing safety risks to drivers during the rainy season. The trees currently facing their demise either fit into this category or stand in the way of infrastructure projects. Workers were planting new trees in the plots where their older brothers had just been uprooted.

Despite this, many Hanoians called on city authorities to revise their “reckless” plan as some of the trees are over one hundred years old and are in good health.

A Facebook group, “6,700 people for 6,700 trees,” was created to protest the plan and claims famous scholars, researchers and architects as backers. The page currently has over 40,000 likes.

This is the forth time in recent months that Vietnamese popular opinion has influenced infrastructure and development policies. Similar protests disrupted plans for a cable car through Son Doong Cave, changed the color of the Saigon Post Office and helped preserve historical elements of the Tax Center.