A source from the office of the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), confirmed to Lusa that work is underway to transplant jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro.

"What is being done is preparatory work and not, specifically, the removal of any trees," he added.

The same source said that at the press conference held on Tuesday on the subject, the municipal director of Green Spaces, Catarina Freitas, explained that “priority would be given” to transplanting the jacarandas, as it had to be carried out within a certain time window for it to be successful.

However, the information given at the press conference was that the transplantation of jacarandas would begin next week, with the first five, and the following ones would be scheduled according to the trees' cycle.

Lusa asked the mayor's office about what motivated the jacaranda transplant process to be brought forward, and is still awaiting a response.

Against this process, the petition “No to the felling of the jacaranda trees on Av. 5 de Outubro”, created on Friday, 21 March on Tree Day, has now gathered more than 49 thousand signatures.

However, a meeting was scheduled for today between a group of petitioners and the Urban Planning Councillor, Joana Almeida, said a source from the council.

At Tuesday's press conference, the Urban Planning Councillor said that Lisbon City Council would respond to the petition against the felling of jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro with two public presentations to “clarify the urban project” planned for the Entrecampos area.

These presentations will take place this Friday (at 6 pm) and next Wednesday (5:30 pm), at the Lisbon Urban Information Center, informed Joana Almeida.

“Inform and communicate”, corroborated the municipal director of Green Spaces, Catarina Freitas, in the same press conference, detailing the numbers: in the axis in question, located in the center of Lisbon, there are 75 jacarandas, 30 will be maintained, 20 will be transplanted (to which two plane trees will be added) and the remaining 25 will be cut down; At the same time, 39 jacaranda trees will be replanted, to which 49 other trees will be added.

At issue is the construction of an underground car park, which will include a loading and unloading area and solid waste collection.

The central axis of Avenida 5 de Outubro will maintain the current two alignments of jacarandas, “the difference is that there will no longer be cars” on the surface, she highlighted, also emphasising that the sidewalks will increase to three meters and will have other trees, namely pear trees.

Joana Almeida recalled that, when the current city executive took office, in October 2021, the contract had already been signed, at public auction in 2019, with “the complete programme for the entire area”. In fact, “400 homes were already being built,” she recalled.

Therefore, the current executive “could not” change the ongoing project to a plot of land of around five hectares “abandoned for 30 years”, under penalty of the city remaining “at a standstill for a few more years”, referring to the urban operation of Entrecampos, on the former lands of the Feira Popular.

Joana Almeida also pointed out that the current 77 trees (75 of which are jacarandas) will increase to 118 in the axis targeted by the urban project, which “won an award for its sustainability characteristics”.

On Wednesday, in a public meeting of the municipal executive, the PSD/CDS-PP leadership reinforced that the plan is to “cut down less and plant more” jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro, but the PS and PCP pointed out that the initial project did not foresee felling.