Puerto Vallarta is celebrating a second year in the Tree Cities of the World program, but the timing carries a sharper edge. The city hosted an international forum on urban forestry as activists and neighbors continue to question tree removal tied to growth, enforcement, and weak fines. The event put experts and officials in the same room, but the harder measures sit outside the conference hall, in permits, sanctions, and trees that survive after planting.
Puerto Vallarta hosts forum under scrutiny
Puerto Vallarta put its urban tree policy on display this week. It hosted the international forum “Arbolado Urbano como Semilla de Resiliencia”, with city officials and specialists from Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico.
The forum ran from May 27 to 30 at Hotel Velas Vallarta. Its agenda centered on urban forestry, climate resilience, public policy, and tree care in growing cities.
It comes at a tense moment. Puerto Vallarta is promoting its place in the Tree Cities of the World network. At the same time, local criticism continues over tree removal, building pressure, and whether municipal fines stop illegal cutting.
At the opening ceremony, Mayor Luis Ernesto Munguía González said the city had received the Tree City label for a second straight year. “Trees are much more than ornamental or decorative elements. They are the heart of our city,” he said in Spanish.
José Federico Suárez, president of Reforestamos México, tied the label to more than planting numbers. “It is not about counting trees, but understanding their environmental and social value,” he said.
The standard behind the Tree City label
The Tree Cities of the World program is run by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Arbor Day Foundation. Its recognition standards require each city to assign responsibility for tree care, set rules, keep an inventory, fund a management plan, and hold an annual tree event.
FAO said the 2025 group included 283 communities in 26 countries. The Mexico summary for 2025 lists 43 recognized cities and municipalities, including Puerto Vallarta.
Those standards set a floor for recognition. They do not show how much canopy a city has kept. They also do not show how many mature trees were lost, or how often sanctions are applied after unauthorized cutting.
Puerto Vallarta’s own Sostenibilidad Ambiental report shows a tree program with several parts. The 2025 report recorded 3,919 trees donated to schools, neighborhoods, civil groups, and public institutions. It also listed 110 trees installed in camellones, parks, avenues, and other public spaces.
The same report described 23 palm transplants. It also cited the first Mesa del Árbol de Puerto Vallarta. The city described the project as a joint effort with civil society to develop a plan for urban tree protection.
Tree loss remains the pressure point
The tree label arrives with a record that is harder to square. Puerto Vallarta has been trying to replace and protect trees. Growth, road work, and storms have reduced the canopy in visible parts of town.
Last year, the city announced a 5,200-tree reforestation drive tied to compensation from the Vía Corta highway project and tree losses after Hurricane Lidia. Local officials said the planned species included parotas, capomos, primaveras, rosa morada, cedars, and mahogany.
Officials linked the highway work to the removal of 257 trees near Las Juntas. They also cited more than 350 trees knocked down by Hurricane Lidia. New plantings can help rebuild the canopy. They do not replace the shade, habitat, and carbon storage of mature trees on the same timetable.
The sharper dispute centers on development. Local criticism over tree loss has focused on the removal of large trees, including parotas. Critics also say some developers can treat a fine as part of the cost of clearing land. That claim needs enforcement records to test on a case-by-case basis, but it has already reached City Hall.
In May 2025, Councilor Melissa Madero pushed for changes to the Ecology Regulation. During a municipal rulemaking debate, she said Puerto Vallarta had experienced “indiscriminate tree cutting.” She also called the city’s fine table “very low” and said it did not deter people from continuing to cut trees.
The proposal went to the council committees. The available account does not show a finished enforcement overhaul from that session.
Enforcement is where the forum meets the street
Puerto Vallarta’s Ecology Regulation already requires permission for pruning, transplanting, or removing trees. Article 211 states that permits are intended to control tree removal, prevent harm from pests and disease, avoid mistreatment of trees, and preserve urban flora.
Article 213 sets sanctions for unauthorized pruning, transplanting, or cutting. It also says the sanction applies to each affected tree. Payment does not exempt the offender from remedial measures ordered by the authority.
That last clause sits at the center of the public debate. A fine can punish a violation. It cannot recreate a mature canopy on command.
The forum continued with panels, dialogue tables, and technical training on urban forestry. Its clearest test in Puerto Vallarta will fall to inspections, public tree inventories, permit decisions, and the survival of trees planted after damage has already been done.
