The 3-30-300 Rule for Healthier and Greener Cities

The 3-30-300 rule!

Urban forests provide a wide range of essential benefits. Current global challenges, such as climate change, environmental degradation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, have resulted in increased awareness of the importance of urban trees and green spaces.

While situations will always be complex and different, and guidelines are not written in stone, we would like to argue for a new rule of thumb for urban forestry and urban greening: the 3-30-300 rule. This rule focuses on the crucial contributions of urban forests and other urban nature to our health and wellbeing, as well as climate change adaptation. It also recognises that we have to consider many different aspects of the urban forest in order to be successful. It also addresses the need for urban forests to percolate into our living, working, and living environments. At the same time, it is straightforward to implement and monitor – and easy to remember. The rule of thumb provides clear criteria for the minimum provision of urban trees in our urban communities:

• 3 trees from every home
• 30 percent tree canopy cover in every neighbourhood
• 300 metres from the nearest public park or green space

The 3-30-300 Program

To better implement the 3-30-300 concept in your city, region, organisation or business, we, in March of 2022, offered an on-line program that discussed the concept in-depth and explained the different metrics and the evidence behind them. The program was led by Professor Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch, who, together with leading experts from the field, gave clear examples and recommendations on how the 3-30-300 concept could be implemented – and how it is being used already.

There´s right now no decition made on if the program will be held again, but the full schedule of the 2022 program can be downloaded HERE