A proposal titled “for the safeguarding of the jacarandas on Avenida 5 de Outubro and the revision of the Fidelidade Property project” was approved during a private meeting of the municipal executive. The approval came with the votes of all opposition councilors, including representatives from the PS, PCP, Livre, Citizens for Lisbon (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), and BE, while the PSD/CDS-PP leadership, which governs without an absolute majority, voted against, a source from the council reported.
With the approval of the BE’s proposal, Lisbon City Council (CML) has decided to recognize the patrimonial, landscape, and environmental value of the jacarandas on Avenida 5 de Outubro as “an element to be fully protected within the framework of the city’s green structure policy.”
The CML has also resolved to “immediately disclose the phytosanitary reports, specimen by specimen, that justify the removal of jacarandas, restoring the transparency that CML owes to its citizens, which has been lacking over the last three years.”
Regarding the reevaluation/renegotiation to be undertaken by the CML with the promoter of the project on Avenida 5 de Outubro, Fidelidade Property, the municipal executive decided that “efforts should be made to minimize and limit transplants as much as possible, excluding removals except where indispensability is demonstrated.”
For this purpose, the CML mandates municipal technical services to monitor the process, ensuring full compliance with regulations and safeguarding the integrity of the trees.
Another point approved in the proposal is to ensure transparency of the process and citizen participation in the construction of the public space, with regular public meetings to monitor the project.
In a statement, the BE council pointed out that “the decision to transplant 20 and remove another 25 jacarandas was made in an opaque manner,” without disclosing the opinions and supporting information, and “without consulting the residents of Lisbon, who only became aware of the decision through short-lived ‘notices’ posted on the trunks” of the trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro.
In response to these notices, a group of citizens mobilized and created the petition “No to the removal of jacarandas on Av. 5 de Outubro,” which garnered over 54,000 signatures.
The BE further recalled the response of CML’s president to the controversy: “Carlos Moedas (PSD) initially blamed the previous term – having been contradicted by official documentation – then said he would not change anything, and later said he could reevaluate.”
The initial plan outlined the removal of 47 trees along the axis of Avenida 5 de Outubro, where there are 75 jacarandas, specifying that 30 would be retained, 20 transplanted (along with two plane trees), and the remaining 25 removed. Simultaneously, 39 jacarandas would be replanted, along with 49 other trees.
The removal of trees is related to the construction of an underground parking lot.
After the protest, on April 3, the CML announced that “a new effort of reevaluation” was requested by municipal technical services and the project promoter regarding the removal of jacarandas on Avenida 5 de Outubro, seeking to determine “if there is any other feasible possibility that has not been properly considered.”
Additionally, the authority stated that, for now, only “three” jacaranda transplants are authorized instead of 20, explaining that these are “specimens located in a crucial area requiring urgent underground works for the requalification of sewer and water mains, which are at risk and in a very degraded state.”
