Green light for the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt. Unanimous vote from the joint Senate Environment and Forestry Committees

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 the 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/3LULwPK. Among them are 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 Supreme Council of Defense of the Country.

Initially 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. So far, at previous committees in the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making forum, the project has achieved unanimity each time. Also, beforehand, 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 the age of the initiative, made the initiative 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/3VRKlpZ) 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 Commission for the Environment, Senator USR), Lucian Mazilu ( the president of the Commission for Waters, Forests, Fishing and Hunting, 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 Țâgarlaș (president of the Legal Commission, PNL senator), Brian Cristian (USR deputy), Laura Moagher (PSD senator), Dragoș Popescu (REPER senator), Sebastian Cernic (USR senator), Andrei Lupu (REPER deputy) and Adrian Giurgiu (USR deputy) .

With unanimity, the assembled commissions also voted today for free access to the forest for recreation, a topic that has 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 Forest 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 gathered 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 the 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.

“The forest around the cities means much more than the timber or the monetary value of the wood. 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 abandonment of the man who makes it up. The forest is containment. The forest is love”, says Alex Găvan, founder of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt.

ABOUT THE CIVIC PLATFORM, CLEAN AIR AND THE BUCHAREST-ILFOV GREEN BELT

The platform again appeals 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), Cătălin 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 Găvan, high-altitude climber and conservationist, and Florin Stoican, president of the associations Kogayon and Rețeaua pentru Urbană Natură.

“Together for the Green Belt” is a project of the Alex Găvan Foundation. The foundation was created to manifest in a concrete plan 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

Bucharest, in the top 3 of the most polluted capitals in the EU

For many years, Bucharest has been in the top 3 of the most polluted capitals in the EU, recording also the biggest budget losses associated with the treatment of diseases caused or worsened by air pollution, with an annual loss of EUR 6.35 billion.

According to the official conclusion of a 2020 report by the National Institute of Public Health, if the authorities met their already assumed targets for combating pollution, the inhabitants of Bucharest could have a four-year longer life expectancy.

After years and years of warnings, Romania is in infringement proceedings and has been condemned by the EU Court of Justice for the toxic air in Bucharest and many other cities.

At the same time, ironically, the forests around Bucharest are systematically decimated. The last remnants of the legendary forests of Vlăsia are under the attack of chainsaws every day.

With 16% forested area, Ilfovul is considered, according to the Forestry Code, “area with a deficit of forest vegetation”.

Most of these forests in the county are classified as “forests with protective functions, predominantly social”. The reality on the ground is obvious and shows, unfortunately, something else.

We are not even talking about the legality of the cuttings, but about the opportunity to carry out these cuttings for economic purposes near the largest urban agglomeration of Romania, where more than 10% of the country’s population lives.

Legal cuts alone have amounted to the equivalent of between 4,000 and 5,000 truckloads of wood annually in the last 10 years. A significant amount, given the few remaining forest bodies in the county.

According to the Forest Inspector application, in 2022, more than half a million trees were cut in Ilfov, 581287 to be exact, in more than 700 authorized forestry works, not including illegal cuttings.

Such forests around towns fulfill a special social role, especially those around large urban agglomerations.

By reducing dust and suspended particles, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by reducing noise or by reducing thermal extremes, these forests are fundamental for a healthy environment and the fight against climate change. They are equally important in creating a harmonious landscape, as well as for recreation, sport, education or therapy through forest baths. Their value to biodiversity is priceless.

With all the pollution in the city and the disappearance of the last forests around it, we are running out of air. We will not have clean air in Bucharest as long as, beyond the anti-pollution measures taken inside it and the fight against the illegal burning of waste in Ilfov, there will not be a green belt surrounding the capital in the county, as is the case in the great metropolises of the world . The development of the city is closely related to what is happening and will happen in Ilfov.

In various forms, many countries recognize the special status and role of peri-urban forests and grant them increased protection.

Copenhagen Green Wedges (Denmark), London Metropolitan Green Belt (UK, where almost all major cities have such green areas), Melbourne’s Green Wedges (Australia), San Francisco Bay Area Greenbelt (USA) and São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve (Brazil) are just a few examples.

The largest existing green belt is that of the city of Ontario, at almost 810,000 hectares, comprising both forests and wetlands, as well as pastures and agricultural land.

But perhaps the most inspiring story is also one of the oldest, and it comes from Vienna, where one hundred and fifty years ago, its inhabitants became aware of the need to protect green space. At the moment the Wiener Grüngürtel surrounds the city almost completely, a very good example for the future Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt.