Environment minister Mircea Fechet and mountaineer and environmentalist Alex Găvan signed on Thursday, May 23, a memorandum of understanding on solutions to combat the worrying air pollution in Bucharest and create a much-needed Green Belt around the capital city. "One must support such an initiative because the forests around big cities are a balancing factor in society," the minister said.

Mircea Fechet thus joined other political leaders and decision-makers who previously signed the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health, and the Future. These include Nicolae Ciucă (PNL), Cătălin Drula (USR), Kelemen Hunor (UDMR), Dragoș Pîslaru and Ramona Strugariu (REPER), Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan, and Ilfov County Council president Hubert Thuma. 

In fact, the initiators say that the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) has remained the only political force yet to support the project openly by signature, and invite prime minister Marcel Ciolacu to sign the document. 

The memorandum is a pillar of the Together for the Green Belt/Împreună pentru Centura Verde civic platform initiated by Alex Găvan, high-altitude climber and conservationist, and Florin Stoican, president of the associations Kogayon and the Urban Nature Network. It includes the amendments to the new Forestry Code aimed at safeguarding the forests in Ilfov county, which passed the Senate in April and moved to final debates and a vote in the Chamber of Deputies. Protecting these forests would be the starting point for creating the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt.

"One must support such an initiative because the forests around big cities are a balancing factor in society. As the effects of climate change are increasingly felt, more forest means less pollution, but also a place for recreation absolutely necessary for the largest urban agglomeration in Romania. So, the social role of the forests around the big cities must take priority, and it is our duty to ensure that this actually happens," minister Mircea Fechet said after signing the memorandum.

In his turn, Alex Găvan commented: "Minister Fechet is not only a signatory of this memorandum, but accepted from the very beginning, as a deputy, to be among the initiators of the law we submitted in 2023 in the Parliament. After, a month ago, we pivoted on the new Forestry Code because we had reached a deadlock at the agriculture committee of the Chamber, he agreed to be among the authors of the amendments related to the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt."

He also explained that the memorandum creates the prerequisites for creating green belts around other cities across Romania, including the forests of Bârnova from Iași, Hoia from Cluj, or Trivale from Pitești. "Protecting peri-urban forests is essential for a healthy environment in large cities."

Safeguarding the forests of Ilfov county is an initiative of the Together for the Green Belt/Împreună pentru Centura Verde civic platform, which was joined by over 150 non-profits, civic groups, and public figures. As its initiators say, it is a public health project with a strong social, climate change mitigation, and anti-pollution component, which also involves environmental actions.

In addition to the Forestry Code amendments to protect Ilfov's forests, the civic platform also backed other proposals that received the Senate's vote in April, such as unrestricted access to the forest for recreation and the protection and conservation of the so-called remarkable trees (old trees with multiple social-ecological functions) from the National Forestry Fund.

To come into force, the new Forestry Code reform must also pass the Chamber of Deputies and be signed into law by president Klaus Iohannis.

Further details about the Together for the Green Belt platform, an initiative of the Alex Găvan Foundation, are available here (in Romanian). Through an online petition, which has gathered more than 12,100 supporters so far, people can also back the civic platform's efforts by signature.

Alex Găvan also made the case for the creation of the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt at the 2023 Climate Change Summit in Bucharest. A video of his speech below:

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the Environment Ministry)