Bucharest will have a Green Belt, formed by the forests of Ilfov, which will help us breathe cleaner air

The forests in Ilfov county are, from now on, protected against commercial exploitation. Bucharest will have a Green Belt, which will help us breathe cleaner air. A year-old project received the green light from politicians, who voted unanimously. The Bucharest – Ilfov Green Belt was registered in the New Forestry Code.

Bucharest will have a green belt, an extremely important public health project.

The protection of the forests of Ilfov against commercial exploitation was included as an amendment to the new Forestry Code.

The initiator of the initiative, Alex Găvan, is of the opinion that we will not have clean air in Bucharest as long as, beyond the anti-pollution measures applied in the Capital, we do not have a green belt around Bucharest, as happens in the big cities of the world.

Alex Găvan, founder, Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt: The three pillars for protecting the Bucharest-Ilfov Belt are: 1. protecting existing forests and allowing felling only for the purpose of ecological reconstruction or forest care, pillar 2 refers to afforestation and reforestation and pillar 3 refers to opening the forest to people for recreational purposes.

Ionuţ Sorin Banciu, State Secretary, Ministry of the Environment: It is a necessary and useful project around big cities, such as Bucharest, where people’s needs related to forests are totally different from the rural area, where people need wood, jobs.

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

Most of the forests in the county are classified as “forests with protective functions”, but the reality shows something completely different.

Dragoş Porojnicu, TVR journalist: According to the Forest Inspector application, in 2022, in Ilfov, more than 580,000 trees were cut in 700 authorized forestry works, not including illegal cuttings.

Apart from protecting the forests of Ilfov so as to create a green belt for Bucharest, the parliamentarians also unanimously voted for free access to the forests for recreation and the protection and conservation of outstanding trees from the National Forestry Fund.