Marwan Shawwara for Environnementon
October
While the government implemented an energy blackout project during one of Cairo’s hottest summers—leaving some of the city’s most densely populated districts without power for up to four hours—residents were shocked by a simultaneous new wave of aggressive tree uprooting across the city. The removal of green spaces, particularly in historic districts, appeared neither reasonable nor explained by authorities. By June 2024, the destruction of these green areas had become a widely discussed topic, trending on social media, covered by talk shows and drawing concern from environmental activists and NGOs. Many sought answers from the government, raising concerns that in Egypt, it is not only the humans, but also trees are facing ongoing hardship.
Over the past decade, statistics and visual observations of Cairo’s public parks reveal a systematic reduction in green spaces, driven by the regime’s push for urbanization projects. According to Green Forest Watch, the government cleared over one million and six hundred thousand square meters of trees between 2013 and 2023 to make way for wider streets, bridges and commercial developments. However, the destruction is not always linked to specific urban projects: In neighborhoods like El Zamalek, where no new projects have been announced and tree removal continues unabated, raising questions about the government’s intentions.
This wave of uprooting in June sparked widespread speculation. Many activists on social media started wondering where the trees were going, given that no new construction projects were announced in several areas. Some speculated that the government was selling the wood to Israel—there has been increased demand in Israel as, especially after Colombia stopped its wood exports to Israel in protest of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. However, Dr. Reham El Morally, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the American University in Cairo, offers a different perspective. She described that the government has a clear strategy to shrink public spaces where people can gather and mobilize. And the new urbanization projects are a “new form of public control.” Without the shade of trees and the cooling effect of green spaces, Cairo’s streets become unbearable in the summer heat, effectively discouraging public activity. With average temperatures reaching 45°C and little to no tree cover, the city’s ten million residents are left to endure an environment that lacks basic amenities like oxygen-rich air.
Consequently, the public health situation consequences are also becoming dire. Ibrahim El Meligy, a consultant at Helwan Fever Hospital, links the increase in lung fibrosis, respiratory allergies and pulmonary diseases—particularly among children and non-smokers—to the loss of oxygen-producing trees. He explained that many children in densely populated areas now require nebulizers and oxygen therapy and are at higher risk of asthma and poisoning due to elevated levels of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Yet, not everyone is impacted equally. The government’s urban development projects, such as the Green River Park and New Central Park in the New Administrative Capital, demonstrate their ability to create green spaces. According to Dar, the official partner of these projects, these parks will cover an area twice the size of New York’s Central Park, totaling 6,200 acres. However, these green spaces are being developed in gated communities, accessible only to a privileged minority—those who can afford to live in high-end developments targeting exclusively the upper and middle-upper classes.
The government’s “Egypt Vision 2030” project, announced in 2018, promised that by 2020 Egypt would offer an average of one square meter of urban green space per capita. This figure was expected to increase to three square meters by 2030, but the vision remains largely unfulfilled. Similarly, the “Go Green” initiative, launched by the Ministry of Environment in 2022, appears to have little practical impact. As electricity blackouts began in the summer of 2023, residents became even more vulnerable, struggling with the lack of natural cooling sources like trees and green spaces, making the situation increasingly unbearable. Egyptians took to social media to share before-and-after images of green spaces near their homes, highlighting the ongoing destruction of the city’s already limited green areas. The uprooting of trees is not only an indicator of the broader environmental and public health crises that the government must urgently address, but also raises a critical question: to what extent should a citizen’s socioeconomic status determine their access to a natural public good like green spaces and trees?
The renowned Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, in his novel Utopia, offered an unfortunate vision of Cairo’s future: “They will leave the old capital to burn with its people, to fade away in oppression, poverty, and disease, while they move to their new capital, sparing their eyes from witnessing all that destruction.” Expanding on his words, it is clear that without intentional intervention in Cairo, Egypt is on the verge of a divided reality—a city burdened with poverty and decay on one side, and on the other, an astonishing new capital established with skyscrapers and lush green spaces. This is the future that hangs in the balance and only decisive change can prevent such a strife.