City Hall Defines Criteria for "Heritage Tree" Status
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has established new regulations to protect "heritage trees" across the capital, with cutting, pruning or transplanting of registered trees now requiring official permission. BMA officials and related departments met on August 31 to define what qualifies as a heritage tree and to set out care measures based on international arboriculture standards. Heritage trees must grow in public areas of Bangkok and be recognised for their physical characteristics, role in urban ecology, or connections to history, culture and local communities.
The assessment criteria are split into two categories. The first covers physical characteristics: a tree should be at least 50 years old or an original specimen, be in sound health, have an adequate protection zone and exposed soil surface, and pose no safety risk to nearby structures or utilities. The second covers other values, including rarity or botanical significance such as endemic or endangered species, historical or cultural connections, and landscape or aesthetic value.
Tree Inventory Database and Million-Tree Push
The BMA plans to roll out the initiative in two phases. Phase 1 will build a "Tree Inventory" database to register trees with a trunk circumference of at least 60 centimetres, alongside pruning standards that will be made available for public scrutiny. Phase 2 will formally publish a Heritage Tree List; once a tree is added, any pruning, transplanting or felling will require permission from the Environment Department.
Officials also considered a draft order to establish a Green Space Policy Driving Committee, chaired by a deputy governor and including forestry and arboriculture experts and conservation partners, to set strategy and drive the city's tree-planting policy. The heritage tree rules build on Bangkok's "million trees" campaign, launched in 2022, which hit its original target of one million trees planted across the city's 50 districts by mid-2024; the BMA has since set a further goal of a second million trees, focused on nine districts on the eastern fringes of the city.
