The Senate adopted the amendments for the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt, announces the civic platform that initiated the project / Free access to forests for recreation will be allowed

The Senate adopted, on Monday, in the joint vote for the new forestry code, with 87 votes in favor, one vote against and three abstentions, the amendments to protect the forests of Ilfov, the cornerstone of the future Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt. The Ministry of the Environment officially supports the approach, along with
parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, announces the Civic Platform “Together for the Green Belt”.

Last week, after four rounds of debate, the joint Senate Environment and Forestry Committees voted unanimously on these amendments.

Submitted by MPs Diana Buzoianu (USR) and Oana Cambera (REPER), the amendments were assumed as authors by several MPs: the current Minister of the Environment, Mircea Fechet (PNL MP), 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 (President Commission for Waters, Forests, Fishing and Hunting, 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 Țagarlaș
(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) , states the quoted source.

The Senate also voted 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 Senate 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 official support 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”, the statement reads.

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 worrisome 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. Among them are the realization and adoption of an integrated plan of
Bucharest City Hall and Ilfov County Council for combating pollution or
the inclusion of the topic related to air pollution in Bucharest and other cities on the agenda of the CSAT Supreme Council of Defense of the Country, the release also states.

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 by the mayor of the capital, Nicușor Dan, and by Hubert Thuma, the president Ilfov County Council.

The Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt appeals again to the president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, and invites him 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 for the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt to become a reality,” the statement reads.

“The Senate today truly listened to the legitimate needs of civil society and acted accordingly in the only responsible and ethical way it could have done so. I bow with gratitude. Also, 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 the personal assessment that and every responsible voter does it,” said climber Alex Glăvan, founder of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt.