Lisbon, March 25, 2025 (Lusa) - Lisbon City Council will respond to the petition that has gathered thousands of signatures against the felling of jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro with two public presentations to "clarify the urban project" planned for the Entrecampos area.

The announcement was made by the Councillor for Urbanism at Lisbon City Council (CML), Joana Almeida, who told a press conference today that these presentations will take place this Friday (at 6pm) and on Wednesday next week (5.30 p.m.), at the Lisbon Urban Information Centre.

"Informing and communicating," said Catarina Freitas, the municipal director of Green Spaces, at the same press conference, detailing the figures: on the axis in question, located in the centre of Lisbon, there are 75 jacaranda trees, 30 will be kept, 20 will be transplanted (plus two plane trees) and the remaining 25 will be felled; at the same time, 39 jacaranda trees will be replanted, to which 49 other trees will be added.

The construction of an underground car park, which will include a loading and unloading zone and solid waste collection, is at stake.

The central axis of Avenida 5 de Outubro will retain the current two alignments of jacaranda trees, "the difference is that there will no longer be any cars" on the surface, he stressed, noting that the pavements will be increased to three metres and will have other trees, namely pear trees.

The transplanting of the jacaranda trees will begin next week, with the first five, and the following ones will be scheduled according to their cycle.

"The jacaranda is our identity, our heritage. In this government, we're saving jacarandas. We're saving jacaranda trees," said the town planning councillor.

Joana Almeida recalled that when the current government took office, a contract had already been signed, to be put up for public auction in 2019, with "the complete programme for the whole area". In fact, "400 homes were already being built", he recalled.

For this reason, the government "couldn't" change the current project for a plot of land of around five hectares that had been "abandoned for 30 years", otherwise the city would "stand still for a good few more years".

The councillor recalled that the current urban planning proposal was the subject of "more than 120 meetings" and was approved by CML, with the PS, the main opposition party, voting in favour.

Even so, the government managed to change the project to reduce the number of jacaranda trees to be transplanted and felled while at the same time agreeing with the project's promoter, Fidelidade Property, to increase the number of these trees in the city by two hundred.

The person responsible for Green Spaces detailed the effort to "compensate or mitigate", which she has tried to explain "by word of mouth" to those who ask her about it.

The announced felling and transplanting of the jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro sparked a petition with more than 30,000 signatures. The councillor recognises this is a "high number", to which CML will respond with information.

"We don't authorise the felling of trees for free, it's always a very considered decision and it's one that doesn't offer us an alternative," said Catarina Freitas, explaining that the 25 jacaranda trees to be felled are in poor condition or even rotting, “badly affected by parking manoeuvres”.

The replanting of 39 new jacaranda trees - which have already been bought and are in a nursery - will be completed along with the construction of the underground car park planned for the project, which is expected to be finished in the second half of 2027, estimated Miguel Santana, director of Fidelidade Property, which manages the urban development project.

Joana Almeida pointed out that the current 77 trees (75 jacarandas) will increase to 118 on the axis targeted by the urban development project, which "won an award for its sustainability features".

Today, Beatriz Gomes Dias, a municipal councillor from the Left Bloc, sent a request to the president of CML, Carlos Moedas, in which she considers the felling of the jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro to be "unacceptable".

SBR/ADB // ADB.

Lusa