The Brussels Capital Region is proposing to transform the current Neerpede Park in Anderlecht into a recreation centre.
The project, led by Brussels Environment, is to be carried out in several phases, the first of which is currently awaiting a decision of the “commission de concertation” after its meeting of 27th April 2023.
A full YES to the better maintenance of this unique pocket of greenery, but what about the logic of cutting down 32 healthy trees to make way for paths and a pavilion that do not yet exist and replanting 51 others as compensation? Are our Brussels elected officials plunging us into a new era? That of the disposable tree?
When 'renaturalisation' means 'destruction’
Let's put it straight: the Neerpede ponds are an artificial creation dating from the 1980s which, in almost half a century, has been rewilded without human intervention, in perfect symbiosis and resilience with the neighbouring Pajottenland and the ring, an urban and polluting environment if ever there was one.
Under these conditions, to speak of 'renaturalising' the site (as per the authorities talk) is nonsense and shows a naive ignorance of the real historical situation. The interventions proposed by Brussels Environment must therefore be qualified as pure and simple destruction.
Destruction of 32 healthy trees and all the fauna and flora that had spontaneously settled there. Destruction intended to, we quote, "create space in order to develop a whole series of typical wetland habitats...". Again, nonsense: these areas exist at the moment. A rich fauna lives there. Why destroy what has been built organically to create an ersatz?
The destruction is intended to allow for "landscape interventions" that will contribute to providing the Neerpede Park with a "natural" bathing area, the main element of a leisure centre that will extend under the Ring Bridge (planned in a later phase of the project).
When you consider that the Region and Communes are working on at least 3 other open-air swimming pool projects (on the roofs of the Abattoirs in Anderlecht, on the Beco site in Tour et Taxis, and the temporary Flow pools (via PoolisCool) in the canal... Is this really necessary?
Chainsaw massacre
When the project's landscape architect designs or redesigns paths and they come across trees, he doesn't hesitate: he cuts them down. He chooses to wield his chainsaw no less than 11 times. Eleven perfectly healthy trees, aged between 17 and 45 years, in other words young trees, condemned to the status of logs on the pretext that they are "an obstacle to the future path".
We hardly dare write this: it is so obvious, but the master architect seems to ignore it. Trees are rooted, fixed to the ground and do not move. On the other hand, the paths, more so, when they are still at idea stage, are perfectly capable of twisting and turning around them.
This choice is all the more incomprehensible given that the presence of tall trees has been shown to reduce the use of medication for cardiovascular and mental disorders. “You can't replace everything, says Professor Aerts of the KU Leuven, who conducted the study, to the planners. New trees can certainly be planted, with pleasure even. But leave the old trees as much as possible: they can't be compensated for.”
If the Neerpede project is carried out as it is, we will only have our tears and anti-depressant tablets to recover.
A 57-year-old tree sacrificed for a bathing pavilion
And what about the planned felling of the majestic and solitary Salix matsudana? A twisted willow that stands at the edge of the road. This living creature has the misfortune to be located right where the landscape designer plans to build the bathers' pavilion. We will not dwell on the appropriateness of this bathing area, which, with its water filtration pumps, is "natural" in name only, as the enormity of such a decision astounds us.
There is no justification for sacrificing such a tree for the construction of a human building: how can one, at a time when the question of the coexistence of vegetation is at the centre of all urban planning concerns, present a project that sells itself as protecting and even creating biodiversity (which, as such, is already quite pretentious) and at the same time propose to cut down a solitary and emblematic tree for a building that can easily be placed a few metres away? Or why not consider integrating it into the building itself? A strong project is a coherent project. In this case, it is not the case, we are swimming in full contradiction.
The triple scam of the green replacement
Other unfortunates are scheduled to be felled, a total of 22 healthy trees. In a burst of green good conscience, during the information session on the project, we hear Brussels Environment congratulating itself on compensating for the planned felling by planting 51 young trees.
This is confounding naive. We cannot put it better than the French botanist, biologist and dendrologist Francis Hallé: "it is a triple scam. Patrimonial, because the old tree was considered a monument in the eyes of the inhabitants. Financial, because the old tree cost nothing, whereas the ten young ones will cost a lot to plant and maintain. And ecological, because it will take 25 years for the 10 young trees replacing the old one to reach an equivalent performance in terms of air purification.”
However, a path that bypasses a tree, a construction that incorporates it, inspires pause, reflection. Taking care to avoid the tree induces a feeling of respect in the walker and makes him and her aware of its importance, since human beings modify their route according to its presence. In short, it educates in ecology.
Morituri te salutant
In the end, this project to redevelop the Neerpede Park carried out by Brussels Environment, in its arboricultural dimension, is a failure on the sociological level (in the sense that it misses its educational mission), a failure on the ecological level (one does not replace old trees with younger ones) and consecrates the success of the consumer society: 22 healthy trees, collectively representing 1,500 years of contribution to the quality of the air of Neerpede and its typical landscape, are going to die.
To make way for a sprawling chimera of green urban tourism that Brussels Environment is trying to impose with no regard for its inhabitants, flora, fauna and humans. When schools are in desperate need of renovation. When poverty is growing in the city. When healthcare is agonizing.
