The neighborhood that organized to save its century-old tree: chronicle of the civic committees of Cali that defend

Origins

The first time I saw a group of neighbors stop a chainsaw in Cali was not at a protest with banners. It was a Tuesday at 7 in the morning, on a sidewalk in barrio San Antonio, when a woman of about seventy stood in front of a crew that already had the permit in hand and said, with a calm that was more imposing than any shout: "Show me the Dagma technical report, sir." The crew stopped. There was no scuffle. There was paper. And that paper, or the lack of it, is the story I want to tell you.

The civic committees that defend urban trees in Cali were not born from an ideology. They were born from suspicion. The suspicion that an eighty-year-old tree that shades three blocks cannot disappear with a phone call and an authorization no one ever saw. In neighborhoods like San Antonio, El Peñón, Granada, La Merced and San Fernando, where mature trees are part of the landscape and the microclimate, neighbors began organizing years ago with a tool that sounds boring but is lethal: the right of petition.

Here is the real step-by-step of how a felling permit works in Cali, what role the Dagma plays, how a complaint is filed and what the civic committees that have been at this for years have achieved. These are reference data from October 2026, so it is worth confirming them before starting any procedure.

Timeline or historical milestones

There is no single founding date. The defense of trees in Cali was built layer by layer, as the city grew and concrete gained ground on shade. These are the milestones that the watchdogs themselves recognize as turning points:

• 1990s: With urban expansion toward the south and east, the first neighborhood committees begin documenting unannounced fellings in traditional neighborhoods. The tools were notebooks, photos and calls to the then-incipient environmental authority.
• 2000s: The Dagma (Administrative Department of Environmental Management) is consolidated as the urban environmental authority of Cali. With it comes the requirement of a technical report prior to any intervention on heritage or large trees.
• 2010s: Civic committees learn to use the right of petition as a mass tool. Requests are filed with the Dagma and the CVC demanding copies of permits, risk studies and the minutes of technical visits.
• Recent years: The discussion expands from the individual tree to the urban landscape: green corridors, heat islands and the relationship between mature trees and neighborhood temperature. Committees begin citing IDEAM data on heat waves and urban microclimates.
• 2026: The collectives of San Antonio, El Peñón, Granada, La Merced and San Fernando maintain active watchdogs and demand public hearings when a felling permit threatens a large specimen.

What changed along the way was not the law, but the neighbors' ability to read it. A civic committee that knows what a technical report is, is a committee that can stop a chainsaw with arguments and not just with rage.

Key figures or events

In these processes there are no heroes with names in history books, but there are recognizable figures. There are the sidewalk watchdogs: retirees, homemakers, teachers and students who walk the neighborhood with their phones in hand and photograph every recent stump. There are the volunteer lawyers who draft rights of petition for free and teach neighbors to cite the correct regulation. And there are the Dagma technicians and officials who, when the procedure is done right, end up being allies rather than adversaries.

The key event that repeats in every neighborhood is the same: an announced felling, a neighbor who asks, a permit that does not appear or appears incomplete, and a crew that stops. It is not an epic victory. It is an administrative victory, which in Cali is almost the same as an epic.

Barrio San Antonio

San Antonio is the most visible case because its trees coexist with architectural heritage and with café and nightlife. Here civic committees have learned to work on two fronts: the formal procedure before the Dagma and social pressure on the neighborhood's networks. When an intervention on a large tree is announced, neighbors file the right of petition and, in parallel, call on the JAC and local merchants so that the request does not rest on a single name. The logic is simple: a permit that affects an entire neighborhood cannot be processed as if it were a private matter of one block.

Barrio El Peñón

El Peñón has a particularity: its narrow streets and its topography mean that every mature tree serves a function that goes beyond aesthetics. It gives shade on a hill, retains water on a slope, dampens the noise of nearby avenues. The committees of this neighborhood usually insist that the Dagma technical report should not only evaluate the risk of the tree falling, but also the cost of losing it. That discussion, of ecosystem value versus risk, is the one that has been hardest to win in hearings.

Barrio Granada

Granada is an area of restaurants, offices and intense pedestrian traffic, and that puts trees under permanent tension: shade is welcome, but roots lift sidewalks and branches clash with facades. The civic committees of Granada have pushed an idea that sounds obvious but is not always applied: before felling, evaluate technical pruning and root management. Many fellings justified as "necessary" could be resolved with specialized intervention. The neighbors' argument is that felling is the easy way out and well-done pruning is the responsible way out.

Barrio La Merced

La Merced combines traditional houses, institutions and a neighborhood life sustained by small commerce. Here the committees have documented how mature trees sustain street temperatures in the hot months, and they use that argument in their requests. The strategy is to move the debate from "I like the tree" to "the tree protects me," because the second argument is the one that holds up in a public hearing.

Barrio San Fernando

San Fernando, with its mix of residences and commercial corridors, has been the scene of disputes over fellings associated with works and renovations. The committees of this neighborhood have perfected documentary oversight: they request copies of the permit, the technical report, the visit minutes and the resolution authorizing the intervention. If a single paper is missing, the request is returned and the crew cannot proceed. It is a small victory, but it is a victory.

Current status

In October 2026, the defense of urban trees in Cali is at an intermediate point: there is more citizen awareness than ever, but also more pressure on urban land. Civic committees are no longer isolated groups; they communicate between neighborhoods, share templates for rights of petition and rely on public hearings. The tool of the Dagma technical report has become the central battleground: if the report is weak, the permit falls; if it is solid, neighbors negotiate mitigation, compensation and pruning instead of felling.

The pending challenge is measurement. The committees know that their strength lies in data, and that is why they insist on documenting how many trees are felled per year, how many permits are denied and how many requests are resolved with pruning. Without that record, every dispute starts from zero. The watchdogs' recommendation is simple: if your neighborhood has a tree at risk, do not wait for the chainsaw to arrive. File the right of petition, request a copy of the technical report and call on your JAC. The shade of a century-old tree is not recovered with a press release; it is defended with paper, with organized neighbors and with the patience of those who know that the city is built every day.

And if there is a tree on your block hanging by a thread, spread the word to your JAC and find out where the procedure before the Dagma stands. Better to ask before the chainsaw sounds.