“Together for the Green Belt” civic platform to protect life in the capital

Agent Green press release

“Together for the Green Belt” civic platform to protect life in the capital

Bucharest, 18 April 2023 – Amid dramatic pollution, aridification and logging around Bucharest, dozens of artists, journalists, researchers, non-governmental organisations and civic groups have joined forces in the “Together for the Green Belt” platform (www.centuraverde.ro) to persuade the authorities to conserve the remaining woodlands around the capital and urgently expand forest cover.

The initiative’s first concrete step is the draft legislation registered this week with Romania’s Parliament, which aims to protect forests in Ilfov County.

The “Together for the Green Belt” civic platform also invites citizens to join by signing the petition addressed to politicians and authorities, calling on them, among other things, to:

1. Adopt and promulgate the draft law protecting Ilfov’s forests

2. Develop an integrated plan by Bucharest City Hall and Ilfov County Council to tackle pollution, including the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt

3. Include the green belt in the Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Development Plan 2021–2027.

The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt is a project that, unless we treat it with the utmost priority and seriousness now, the future will force upon us anyway, at an immeasurable health, economic, ecological and ethical cost. The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt needs committed supporters to make it a reality. This means “opening the eyes” of all relevant current or potential decision-makers, regardless of their party, and making them deeply aware that they must join hands to achieve this goal.

Daniel Sărdan, initiator of Salvații Codrii Vlăsiei: “We are taking steps to save the remnants of the Vlăsia woodlands so that they are no longer production forests but protection forests. They should be the lungs of Bucharest’s residents and those living around the forest.”

Gabriel Păun, platform ambassador: “However impossible a green shield around Bucharest may seem, it is necessary. We want to keep the capital liveable. Winter has disappeared, summers are becoming unbearable and the soil has lost its water reserves. The aridification of southern Romania is imminent, and climate change does not discriminate between Cotroceni and Berceni. The few remaining forests must be conserved now, expanded as quickly as possible and interconnected in an uninterrupted network.”

VIDEO: Agent Green repeatedly protested alongside the Codrii Vlăsiei Civic Group during the pandemic to stop logging in Ilfov County.

Alex Găvan, initiator: “Exceptional circumstances, such as those we face now, call for exceptional actions and measures, exceptional vision and exceptional boldness. And exceptional ethics. All this can be done only when inspired by exceptional love.”

Florin Stoican, co-initiator: “Peri-urban forests play an essential role in ensuring the quality of life of people in large cities. They are the green lungs of the most polluted inhabited areas, oxygenating the air and filtering pollutants, connecting city dwellers with nature, offering multiple opportunities for recreation, leisure and education, protecting inhabited areas, ensuring a pleasant microclimate and conserving biodiversity. For all these reasons and many others, these forests must be protected and used for their predominantly social and environmental role, and expanded so that city dwellers can benefit to the fullest from these advantages.”

The platform’s initiators are Alex Găvan, high-altitude climber and conservationist, and Florin Stoican, president of the Kogayon and Parcul Natural Văcărești associations.

Partners, supporters and ambassadors are presented on the platform’s official website.

Press kit:
https://bit.ly/41grPrv

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Additional information

“Together for the Green Belt” is a project of the Alex Găvan Foundation. The foundation was created to give concrete expression to its founder’s vision that “The universe means abundance, generosity and altruism” through projects in the environment, education, sport, arts and social fields.

Bucharest residents could have a life expectancy four years longer. This is the official conclusion of a 2020 report by the National Institute of Public Health. It would happen if the authorities met their existing pollution-control targets.

For years, Bucharest has ranked among the top 3 most polluted capitals in the European Union, while also recording the largest budget losses associated with treating diseases caused or aggravated by air pollution, with an annual loss of EUR 6.35 billion.

The capital fares just as badly in green space per resident. We rank last in the EU. At approximately 7–9 square metres, we are far from the 26 square metres required by law.

After years of warnings, Romania faces infringement proceedings and has already been condemned by the Court of Justice of the European Union for Bucharest’s toxic air. Until the situation is remedied, potential fines of many tens of millions of euros will be paid by Bucharest City Hall, meaning with all our money.

At the same time, ironically, the forests around Bucharest are systematically decimated. The last remnants of the legendary Vlăsia woodlands are under daily assault from chainsaws. With 16% forest cover, Ilfov is considered an “area with a deficit of forest vegetation” under the Forest Code.

Legal logging alone amounts annually to the equivalent of 5 000 truckloads of timber, a significant quantity given the few forest blocks remaining in the county. According to the Inspectorul Pădurilor application, over the last 12 months in Ilfov, more than half a million trees, precisely 581 287, were felled in over 700 authorised forestry operations. These account only for legal logging.

Such forests around settlements have a special social role, particularly around large urban areas. By reducing dust and suspended particles, greenhouse gas emissions, noise and temperature extremes, they are fundamental to a healthy environment and the fight against climate change. These forests are equally important for a harmonious landscape and for recreation, sport, education and forest-bathing therapy. Their value for biodiversity is also priceless.

Under current legal provisions, the main function assigned to these forests by forest management plans is social, taking priority over the economic function. With all the city’s pollution and the disappearance of the last forests around it, we are running out of air. We will not have clean air in Bucharest unless, alongside anti-pollution measures within the city, Ilfov has a green belt surrounding the capital.

The city’s development is closely linked to what happens and will happen in Ilfov. Following the already established Văcărești Nature Park, this green belt will be the next major step in providing Bucharest with green lungs, and in improving quality of life in the city and metropolitan area.

In various forms, most European countries recognise the special status and role of forests around cities. They give them increased protection in line with the threats facing this forest category. Beyond their social and economic benefits for the community, they also facilitate sustainable urban planning, stopping uncontrolled property development.

Copenhagen Green Wedges (Denmark), London Metropolitan Green Belt (United Kingdom, where almost all major cities have such green zones), Melbourne’s Green Wedges (Australia), San Francisco Bay Area Greenbelt (USA) and São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve (Brazil) are just a few examples.

The largest existing green belt is that of the city of Ontario, covering almost 810 000 hectares and including forests and wetlands as well as pastures and farmland.

But perhaps the most inspiring story is also one of the oldest and comes from Vienna, where, a hundred and fifty years ago, residents recognised the need to protect green space. Today, the Wiener Grüngürtel almost completely surrounds the city. A very good example for the future Bucharest-Ilfov green belt.