Marcel Ciolacu, prime minister and leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), signed on Monday, June 3, 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. "Pollution is not left or right. Pollution is killing us all! And all of us, together, have a duty to fight this invisible killer," the PM said.

With Marcel Ciolacu's signature, the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health, and the Future, a pillar of the Together for the Green Belt/Împreună pentru Centura Verde civic platform initiated by mountaineer and environmentalist Alex Găvan, has managed to unite leaders from across the political spectrum. 

Liberal leader and Senate speaker Nicolae Ciucă also signed the memorandum, alongside party presidents Cătălin Drulă (USR), Kelemen Hunor (UDMR), and Dragoș Pîslaru and Ramona Strugariu (REPER), who were joined by Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan, Ilfov County Council president Hubert Thuma, and environment minister Mircea Fechet (PNL).

Monday's signing event was held in a place chosen for its essential symbolic value - a meadow in the heart of the Balotești forest, part of the future green belt, on the banks of the Vlăsia river.

"Very few people manage to climb eight-thousanders without supplemental oxygen. Alex Găvan is one of them! Yes, the air is thin up there. But down here, we're all suffocating from pollution. That's what the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt must be. Oxygen reserve for the people who live here and feel the effects of pollution to the fullest! We are developing Bucharest and Ilfov, we are building infrastructure for access to the city, but we must also make sure that pollution doesn't suffocate us, and one solution is the protection by law of the forests around the capital, new afforestation to increase the existing forest area, but also the opening of these forests to people, for recreational purposes," prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said.

Moreover, he stated that the green belt concept should be extended to other cities in Romania. Plus, the authorities are already working on identifying land plots that could be used for afforestation, backed by the EU-funded Recovery and Resilience Plan, including for this project in Ilfov county.

"I congratulate Alex Găvan and all his colleagues from the Together for the Green Belt civic platform for uniting all the parties and all the political leaders around a common project. Pollution is not left or right. Pollution is killing us all! And all of us, together, have a duty to fight this invisible killer," he added.

In his turn, Alex Găvan noted that, with Marcel Ciolacu's signature, the Green Belt project is now backed by all main parliamentary parties, offering the guarantee that the new Forestry Code will pass the Parliament and, with it, the amendments to safeguard the peri-urban forests of Bucharest.

The new Forestry Code reform passed the Senate in April and moved to final debates and a vote in the Chamber of Deputies. Given the political consensus on the project, Găvan believes the bill is now on track to be adopted by the Parliament by the end of June when the current parliamentary session ends.

"One step at a time, those who chose to be Together for the Green Belt materialize a historic project, one of the most important in the last 30 years, a project that will have a major impact on reducing pollution and increasing the quality of life in Bucharest and the metropolitan area, just as it is happening right now in countries that have a culture of protecting the environment," Alex Găvan said.

Protecting the forests of Ilfov, which would be the starting point for creating the green belt around Bucharest, is an initiative of the Together for the Green Belt/Împreună pentru Centura Verde civic platform, launched roughly a year ago by Alex Găvan and Florin Stoican (president of the associations Kogayon and the Urban Nature Network), and 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.

The platform, with support from several MPs, submitted amendments to the new Forestry Code bill aimed at safeguarding the forests in Ilfov county. The reform passed the senators' vote and moved to the Chamber of Deputies. To become law, once it passes both chambers of the Parliament, the bill also has to be signed by president Klaus Iohannis. 

Other Forestry Code amendments that passed the Senate in April, also backed by the Together for the Green Belt platform, promote 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.

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 12,200 supporters so far, people can also back the civic platform's efforts by signature.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / Ovidiu Micsik)