Enshrined as amendments to the new forestry code, the protection of the forests of Ilfov against commercial exploitation, the cornerstone of the future Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt, was voted today, unanimously, after four rounds of debates, by the assembled commissions for the environment and for forests of the Senate. The Ministry of the Environment officially supports the approach, along with parliamentarians from across the political spectrum.
The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt (www.centuraverde.ro) is a public health project with a strong social and anti-pollution component, as well as mitigating the effects of climate change, part of a systemic solution that also involves a significant environmental component.
In the context of the dramatic pollution in Bucharest and the worrying cutting of forests around the Capital, over 150 non-governmental organizations, civic groups and public persons, united in a non-political approach under the umbrella of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt and with the support of the Presidential Administration, came meeting politicians and authorities with the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health and Future.
The document, in seven points, contains the amendments to the new forestry code and which are intended to protect the forests of Ilfov, the cornerstone of the future Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt, the creation of green belts for other cities, as well as solutions to pollution in Bucharest and county, but also in the rest of the country: https://bit.ly/LULwPK. Among them is the creation and adoption of an integrated plan of the Bucharest City Hall and the Ilfov County Council to combat pollution or the inclusion of the topic related to air pollution in Bucharest and other cities on the agenda of the CSAT-Supreme Council for the Defense of the Country.
Originally submitted to Parliament a year ago, on April 12, 2023 in the form of a draft law, the Green Belt first had a positive trajectory, managing to attract co-initiators from all parties. Until now, at previous committees in the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making forum, the project has obtained unanimity each time. Also, in advance, the project was unanimously adopted by the Senate and also unanimously passed by its committees.
But the deadlock from the last commission, the one for “agriculture, forestry, food industry and specific services”, a deadlock that amounted to almost half of the age of the approach, made the initiative to be overtaken by the new forestry code, whose adoption, being a milestone in the PNRR, is estimated for the current parliamentary session.
As a result, on April 12, 2024, on the one-year anniversary of the start of the initiative, the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt made the pivot and submitted the initial text of the draft law in the form of amendments (https://bit.ly/3VRKIpZ) to the new forestry code, a text that was co-created and agreed in its final form together with the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests, and adopted today unanimously by the Senate’s environment and forests committees.
Submitted by deputies Diana Buzoianu (USR) and Oana Cambera (REPER), these amendments were assumed as authors by several parliamentarians: the current minister of the environment, Mircea Fechet (PNL deputy), the former minister of the environment Tanczos Barna (UDMR senator ), the President of the Senate, Nicolae Ciucă (president and senator PNL), Kelemen Hunor (president and deputy UDMR), the Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu (vice-president and senator PNL), Aurel Oprinoiu (president of the Environment Commission, senator USR), Lucian Mazilu ( the president of the Commission for Waters, Forests, Fisheries and Hunting Fund, PSD senator), Virgil Popescu (president of the Commission for the Environment and Ecological Balance, PNL deputy, former minister of energy), Robert Cazanciuc (PSD senator, former minister of justice), Cristian Tâgarlas (president of the Legal Commission, PNL senator), Brian Cristian (USR deputy), Laura Moagher (PSD senator), Dragos Popescu (REPER senator), Sebastian Cernic (USR senator), Andrei Lupu (REPER deputy) and Adrian Giurgiu (USR deputy) .
With unanimity, the assembled commissions voted today also for free access to the forest for recreation, a topic that sparked heated debates in the public space in the last half year and for which the civic platform carried out an intense advocacy activity.
Also, the assembled commissions also unanimously voted for the protection and conservation of outstanding trees from the National Forestry Fund through the new forestry code, after, two weeks ago, the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt obtained, through an unprecedented institutional commitment, the support official of the Ministry of the Environment for them. They are the custodians of an identity memory that, once lost, will never be recovered and will thus create a void that cannot be filled.
Through an online petition that has already collected over 11,800 signatures, (https://campaniamea.declic.ro/p/ImpreunaPentruCenturaVerde), the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt invites citizens to join in asking political and executive decision-makers for concrete measures for Clean Air, Health and Future.
In 2024, air quality and the creation of green belts in peri-urban areas cannot be absent from the program and priorities of any serious party and any serious candidate in the upcoming elections and, at the same time, cannot be absent from their personal assessment make every voter responsible.
Alex Găvan, founder of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt:
“The forest around the cities means much more than the timber or the value of the wood in money. Infinitely more. The forest means oxygen. It means Life. The forest means health, including mental health. It means therapy and healing for a society increasingly alienated by the loss of connection and the abandonment of the man who makes it up. The forest is containment. The forest is love”.
ABOUT THE CIVIC PLATFORM, CLEAN AIR AND THE BUCHAREST-ILFOV GREEN BELT
The platform appeals again to the president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu and invites him (constantly, since half a year ago) to join and sign the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health and Future, PSD being the only non-signatory party.
The PSD leader’s signature represents the defining signature that the residents of Bucharest and Ilfov still need at this moment so that the protection of the forests already existing in Ilfov, the cornerstone of the future green belt, becomes a reality in the next few weeks.
Previously, the memorandum was also signed by party presidents Nicolae Ciucă (PNL), Cătalin Drula (USR), Kelemen Hunor (UDMR), Dragoș Pîslaru and Ramona Strugariu (REPER), as well as the mayor of the capital, Nicușor Dan, and by Hubert Thuma, president of the Ilfov County Council.
The initiators of the civic platform are Alex Gavan, high-altitude climber and conservationist, and Florin Stoican, president of the Kogayon and Rețeaua pentru Urbană Nature associations.
“Together for the Green Belt” is a project of the Alex Găvan Foundation. The foundation was created to manifest concretely the vision of its founder according to which “The Universe Means abundance, generosity and altruism”, by carrying out projects in the field of environment, education, sports, arts and social causes.
Partner organizations: www.centuraverde.ro/#parteneri
Supporting organizations: www.centuraverde.ro/sustinatori
Platform ambassadors: www.centuraverde.ro/#ambassadori
Tags: Green light BucharestIlfov Green Belt Unanimous vote joint Senate Environment Forestry Committees
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