A green ring around Madrid? It's now or never.

Have you ever wondered what the city looked like centuries ago?  Its landscape was crisscrossed by streams and paths that connected mills, hermitages, and towns that were eventually absorbed by the great metropolis.  

Waste treatment plants, electric substations, landfills, and transport infrastructure completely transformed the territory. Cultivated fields were abandoned in expectation of more lucrative urban uses.

The Madrid Metropolitan Forest project aims to make history by growing a green ring around the Spanish capital. 

Silvia Villacañas is the Director of Strategic Planning at the Urban Planning Department of the Madrid City Council. She leads the team that is implementing an urban sustainability dream for Madrid's citizens.

"The metropolitan forest project will generate a 75 km green belt with 35,000 hectares of forest. 80% already exists, but we are going to intervene in 4,000 hectares over the next 10 years."

"This will add one million more trees and ten million more shrubs than Madrid currently has."

"We are planting more trees, improving the urban climate and reducing pollution. We are creating new spaces for the city, new routes and paths on which to walk from one park to another, or from one neighborhood to another."

"We want to create a forest avenue and to have bike tours. We will equip it with social facilities and sports areas in order to bring nature closer to the city of Madrid."

"The city was growing with its back to the river. In 2004, the M-30 road was buried, and they began to make parks and recover the margins of the river. There was a project to recover the ecological flow, and birds, amphibians and fish have appeared."

"For us, this decade is going to be crucial in order to develop this great green infrastructure for Madrid. It is an opportunity that we cannot miss, because the interests of politicians, scientists, technicians and citizens converge."

"This is our last chance. If we don't seize this moment, we will have lost it and Madrid will be left without a green ring," warns Silvia Villacañas.

"In 30 years, we think we will be able to absorb 500,000 t of CO2 per year," estimates Silvia Villacañas. There's a traditional saying in the city: From Madrid to heaven/the sky. It will be a cleaner sky thanks to the Metropolitan Forest.