Environmental advocates and experts are fiercely criticizing the removal of decades-old trees along Quirino Avenue in Manila, warning that destroying urban canopies during a climate crisis compromises public health for commercial growth.

To recall, more than 600 trees are being cut down to clear the path for a 3.97-kilometer segment of SMC Infrastructure’s Southern Access Link Expressway, a project designed to connect to the capital’s Skyway network.

The cutting comes amid periods of extreme heat, sparking immense backlash.

Government officials defended the project, stating it went through proper legal channels, including securing an Environmental Compliance Certificate and local barangay clearances.

However, scientists and researchers argue the government’s mitigation strategy — requiring the developer to plant 50,700 replacement seedlings —fails to understand basic ecology.

“From a climate mitigation and ecosystem-service perspective, mature trees cannot be treated as equivalent to newly planted seedlings,” said Jerwin Baure, an environmental advocate and member of the scientist group AGHAM.

Baure, a doctoral student at Sorbonne University in France who studies climate impacts, cited that mature trees already store substantial carbon and cool the city. Seedlings, he said, take decades to replicate those functions, assuming they survive at all.

He also questioned the effectiveness of localized replacement programs and cited that past compensation projects, such as mangrove replanting for the New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, suffered from improper practices, including planting the wrong species and damaging root systems.

“The conservation of mature urban trees should be the first option,” Baure said, adding that community consultations likely ignored the street-level residents who depend directly on the shade.

The loss of green spaces is acutely felt in Metro Manila. According to 2020 data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Forest Management Bureau (DENR-FMB), the National Capital Region contains only 22.05 square kilometers of forest cover across 619.54 square kilometers of urban concrete.

The disconnect between political policy and environmental science has drawn sharp rebukes from the scientific community.

Meantime, Sonny Africa, an economist and executive director of the think tank IBON Foundation, said the underlying problem is a political system that measures development through Gross Domestic Product and commercial activity rather than ecological stability.

Under this model, Africa argued, the DENR functions “less as an ecological protector and more as a facilitator of investment.”

“Environmental damage is actually justified by the fiction that damage can simply be mitigated by things like compensatory planting, engineering fixes, and rehabilitation,” Africa said.

Despite the clearing on Quirino Avenue, advocates believe organized public resistance remains a powerful tool.

Africa pointed to recent victories, including a March freeze on mining exploration in Nueva Vizcaya driven by local government and community opposition, and the 2024 closure of an illegal resort in the Chocolate Hills protected area following public outcry.