Tree Rights & Shaping Sustainable Cities
- Lisa
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
by Nina Munteanu
September 1, 2026 - 13
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The Sustainability Thread is a thematic series of articles, curated by Canadian SF author Nina Munteanu and sponsored by Reality Skimming Press. Pieces in the series appear twice a month Query Nina Munteanu about appearing on the thread at nina.sfgirl@gmail.com
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On Summer Solstice Day of this year, I heard that the small town of Terrasse-Vaudreuil in
Québec granted trees rights as living beings; in a Canadian landmark resolution for Canada and
Québec, 2,000 residents of this town west of Montreal declared that trees have “the right to
life, to natural growth, to integrity and regeneration.” This recognition aims to bring attention
the importance of trees in supporting sustainability and to strengthen efforts to preserve them
and their ecosystems.
Terrasse-Vaudreuil became the first municipality in Québec and Canada to sign the Universal
Declaration of the Rights of the Tree, an international initiative led by environmental groups.
The declaration’s main articles state that: 1) trees are living beings and a common human good;
2) that life on Earth depends on their existence; and 3) that humans must act in fraternity and
solidarity with them.
Mayor Michel Bourdeau credits filmmaker Andre Desrochers with the inspiration for
community action. Bourdeau told reporters that Desrochers’ film Des arbres et des arts
“convinced citizens that trees are living entities that breathe and communicate with each other
through their root systems.” Something that surely we all learned in grade school—but
obviously some of us needed reminding! Bourdeau acknowledged that trees are a true green
infrastructure because they help reduce urban heat islands, improve air quality, manage
precious water resources and protect biodiversity; and trees are our biggest ally in fighting
climate change.
This is fine rhetoric, but how will it translate into sustainable success?
Bourdeau mentioned that the town will review its existing rules and bylaws to ensure that trees
are protected or replaced if they must be cut down. To help increase tree canopy, the town will
also provide trees to residents. No clear idea was provided on how a truly functional green
infrastructure with protected biodiversity will be achieved.
What Bourdeau mentioned is also nothing new for other cities in Canada, where municipal
bylaws restrict cutting down urban trees and provide free trees to residents willing to plant
them on their properties. For instance, in Delta, BC, where I live, removal of a tree requires a
permit and must be justified and in most cases that tree must be replaced. Free trees are also
available every spring to Delta residents for planting.
The difference lies in the official nature of the preservation approach and the higher status of
trees granted in general. Yenny Vega Cardenas, president of the International Observatory of
Nature Rights, said that the declaration on tree rights is part of the same movement in several
jurisdictions around the world—with examples from a river in New Zealand to the cloud forest
of Ecuador—granting personhood to various aspects of the natural world including forests,
rivers.
All significant actions—whether movement or revolution—begin with narrative and rhetoric.
Terrasse-Vaudreuil chose this rhetoric. What this represents for me as a human citizen of the
planet and a writer of eco-fiction, is a shift in the narrative that we live by. Recognition of trees
and nature as meriting legal status, elevates Nature in our minds from ‘other’ to ‘person’ and
this helps promote more respectful treatment.
Can City Trees Help Achieve Sustainability?
The short and simple answer is yes. Trees mitigate extreme heat through shading; they filter air
and particulate pollution, and manage stormwater runoff. Urban canopies enhance community
health and support biodiversity. However, within a city or town, this depends largely on
conditions the city provides. Terrasse-Vaudreuil did not make clear if their efforts to preserve
urban trees included the creation of urban forest and dedicated natural parkland. Urban trees
and urban forests are two different things. An urban tree—while it can provide many benefits
(as mentioned above)—is often no more than a street tree, isolated and prone to air pollution,
vandalism, disease, under-watering, and sediment compacting; and, as a result, often barely
functional. An urban forest, however, ideally includes not just a tree but a collection of trees
within an ecosystem that supports it; an ecosystem that ensures the enduring health of those
trees and their ultimate functionality. It is the latter that will truly help achieve sustainability
and provide environmental and climate resilience.
Humans are slowly learning—or relearning—some of ecology’s basic principles to achieve
sustainability. Mayor Bourdeau mentioned that a watershed moment for him and his town was
when they learned that a tree “is like a human being. It breathes, it lives, it takes in water. It
protects us from all sorts of things.” That’s a start. The next important lesson to act upon is the
knowledge that trees, like people, need community to thrive. Trees require a forest ecosystem
to nurture in and to function optimally; they need other trees to help protect each other and to
communicate with through their roots and aerosols; they need a diverse undergrowth of fungi,
lichen, microbes and insects to circulate and maintain a fertile soil and keep disease in check,
and wildlife, like squirrels, birds, and chipmunks to help propagate.
It takes a community to raise a tree.
References:
Akbari, H. (2002). Shade trees reduce building energy use and CO2 emissions from power
plants. Environmental Pollution, 116(1), S119-S126. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-
Akbari, H. & Taha, H. (1992). The impact of trees and white surfaces on residential heating and
cooling energy use in four Canadian cities.Energy, 17(2) 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/0360-5442(92)90063-6
Alexander, C. & DePratto, B. (2014). The Value of Urban Forests in Cities Across Canada. Special Report – TD Economics. Retrieved from https://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/UrbanForestsInCanadianCities.
Alexander, C. & McDonald, C. (2014). Urban Forests: The Value of Trees in the City of Toronto.
Special Report: TD Economics. Retrieved from
https://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/UrbanForests.pdf
Livesley, S. J., McPherson, E. G., & Calfapietrac, C. (2016). The Urban Forest and Ecosystem
Services: Impacts on Urban Water, Heat, and Pollution Cycles at the Tree, Street, and City
Scale. Journal of Environmental Quality, 45(1), 119-124. doi:10.2134/jeq2015.11.0567
Lowrie, Morgan. 2026. “Quebec town recognizes trees as living beings with rights.” The
Canadian Press. June 21, 2026.
Miller, R. W., Hauser, R. J., & Werner, L. P. (2015). Urban Forestry: Planning and Managing
Urban Greenspaces (3rd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
Sandström, U. G., Angelstam, P., & Mikusiński, G. (2006). Ecological diversity of birds in relation
to the structure of urban green space. Landscape and Urban Planning, 77(1-2), 39-
Schroeder, H. W. (2009). Variations in the perception of urban forest recreation sites. Leisure
Sciences, 5(3), 221-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490408309513004
Sinnett, D. (2018). Mitigating air pollution and the urban heat island effect: The roles of urban
trees. In I. Douglas, D. Goode, M. Houck, & D. Maddox (Eds.), Handbook of Urban Ecology.
Routledge. [In Press] Retrieved from http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/38014
Wang, Y. & Akbarib, H. (2016).The effects of street tree planting on Urban Heat Island
mitigation in Montreal. Sustainable Cities and Society, 27, 122-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2016.04.013
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Nina Munteanu is an Canadian ecologist, author, editor and writing coach, notably but not exclusively in the realm of Speculative Fiction (SF/F). In addition to nine published novels, Munteanu has written short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which have been translated into several languages throughout the world. Munteanu is a member of SF Canada.
Nina Munteanu on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninamunteanu/
Nina Munteanu Writing Coach. https://ninamunteanu.me/
Nina Munteanu (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Munteanu
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Image Credits
Munteanu, N. , No date given
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