ABSTRACT
The idea that living in a healthy environment is a human right is beginning to gain ground both internationally and nationally. This is due primarily to the increasing world population and the resulting great expansion of urban areas, areas that are all too often not providing environments that provide a viable quality of life for their communities. The twenty-first century is very much the urban century, and the UK is not immune to this as our population has expanded from over 60 million in 2000 to over 68 million in 2020, and more than 80% of us now live in urban areas. There is an increasing interest by organisations such as the United Nations in the importance of healthy urban environments, and the key role that the urban forest can play in making our cities viable and resilient is beginning to be recognised. This suggests that our engagement with the urban forest ought to be deemed to be a human right and considers the impact that increased urbanisation will have upon our quality of life, and the role that trees, particularly street trees, will play in this. This chapter will consider the progress that has been made in persuading the powers that be that, as urbanism expands, trees will increasingly become a symbol of hope and life, especially the trees that thrive where we actually live – our street trees.
