The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt project, included in the new Forestry Code, received the green light in the Senate

Enshrined as amendments to the new Forestry Code, the protection of Ilfov forests against commercial exploitation, the cornerstone of the future Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt, was voted unanimously on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, after four rounds
of debates, by the joint committees 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 project, included in the new Forestry Code, received the green light in the Senate

The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt 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 an apolitical 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 Forest 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 both to the pollution in Bucharest and the county, but also to that of the rest of the country.

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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 CSAT – the Supreme Council for the 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 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.

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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 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 on April 23, 2024, unanimously, by the joint committees for the environment and for forests of the Senate.

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, Fisheries and Hunting Fund, PSD senator), Virgil Popescu (president of the Commission for 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) .

Free access to the forest for recreation and the preservation of outstanding trees were also voted

With unanimity, the assembled committees also voted on April 23, 2024 for free access to the forest for recreation, a subject that has sparked heated debates in the public space in the last half year and for which the civic platform has 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, can never be recovered
and will thus create a void that cannot be filled.