"The cities of the future are going to have major problems in making sure that people live a decent life," Simone Borelli, an urban forestry expert and co-author of a recent FAO report on global urban forestry guidelines , tells CNN. Stephen Sheppard, professor in urban forestryThis "urban forest" is defined by the FAO as "the networks or systems comprising all woodlands, groups of trees, and individual trees located in urban and peri-urban areas" -- it encompasses everything from grand parks down to a single tree. "People think trees are dispensable and they're not," Stephen Sheppard, a professor in urban forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, tells CNN. One of the biggest environmental challenges facing the modern world can be mitigated by urban forests: trees store carbon and moderate urban temperatures. Failing to plan really is planning to fail when it comes to urban forestry, says Borelli.

Source: CNN April 06, 2017 01:30 UTC