The Tree Cities of the World Program marks world-leading urban-forestry management standards and practices, and nine Australian cities have been recognised.
To be recognised among the Tree Cities of the World a city must meet five core standards. It must:
* Have established responsibility for trees (appointed or delegated responsibility to an officer, department, board or similar)
* Set the rules (developed policy, procedures, plans or similar)
* Know its trees (have, or be compiling, a tree inventory)
* Allocate resources for tree planting and care (an annual budget or grant)
* Celebrate trees and achievements (hold an annual event like Arbor Day, Wattle Day or National Tree Day).
Currently 170 cities around the world are recognised, including nine in Australia and three in New Zealand. Collectively these cities invested over USD$730 million in urban forestry in 2022, volunteers contributed over 860,000 hours of input, and over 17 million trees were planted.
As more cities work to meet the standards for recognition they help raise the standard of urban forestry across the world.
Australian Tree Cities
Bending, Victoria
Burnside, South Australia
Canberra, ACT
Canning, WA
Charles Sturt, SA
Greater Geelong, Victoria
Mitcham. SA
Unley, SA
Victoria Park, WA
See the world’s Tree Cities and find out more about the movement at treecitiesoftheworld.org.
