Nelson atop his column looks south towards the Thames, presumably just in case the French fleet goes for a sneak attack up the river. But at some point in the future he could be staring out over a forest covering Trafalgar Square and stretching down Whitehall, and in a roundabout way it would be the French behind that.
Next weekend, in a €4.2m event called Nature Capitale, the whole of the Champs Elysées in Paris will be covered in tens of thousands of trees and thousands of displays of crops. The idea is to mark UN International Biodiversity Day and is the brainchild of street event artist Gad Weil.
The broad aim of Nature Capitale, which is funded by banks, retailers and other businesses, is to highlight how we can live sustainably in harmony with nature. But there is clearly a promotional angle to it for the main organisations behind the whole ‘happening’; the French young farmers association Jeunes Agriculteurs for the crop and orchard displays, and the country’s nursery industry organisations and France Bois Forêt (the umbrella body for the French timber and forestry sector) for all the trees.
In total, the forest (which will be in place on May 23-24) will comprise more than 150,000 plants. Most of these will be saplings and young trees, but there will also be 650 fully-grown specimens.
All in all, it will be a phenomenal shop window for wood and its contribution to the environment and sustainable development – and the sector’s other key organisations will be on hand to tell the public more.
So what’s this got to do with London, you may ask? Well the idea is to make Nature Capitale an annual, globe-trotting event, set up in collaboration with the forestry, timber and agricultural organisations in different host countries. Next year it is planned for Times Square, New York, then Istanbul and Sao Paulo. And when I mooted London as a venue to one of the organisers, she said that would be “fantastique”! And wouldn’t it be good for Wood for Good?
