The founder of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt, Alex Gavan, says that the draft of the new Forestry Code will be debated by the Environment Committee of the Chamber of Deputies on Monday.
At the same time, the amendments developed to the initiative of the civic platform with the support of the Environment Ministry and assumed by political leaders from several parliamentary groups will be debated. The Senate has already adopted the draft Forestry Code, including the provisions aimed at establishing the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt.
"The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt and the green belts around the cities throughout the country are actually a public health project, which in the current context of climate change and pollution have already proven their effectiveness at the international level. A lot has been done concrete things from last year, since we officially started the approach until now. On the one hand, we are one step away from the protection of these forests around Bucharest. (...) A very important thing will happen on Monday: finally the Forestry Code enters the Environment Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. (...) Several candidates for the presidency have assumed the green belts as a country project", said Alex Gavan, present on Thursday at the planting action the first trees for the Bucharest Green Belt.
The amendments that provide for the creation of green belts for cities in Romania are assumed by 20 parliamentarians, including all the political leaders who signed the memorandum (from PSD, PNL, USR and UDMR), as well as five ministers, including the Environment minister, as well as unaffiliated parliamentarians.
Alex Gavan expressed his hope that the provisions of the new Forestry Code will be adopted by December, because it represents a milestone in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
He mentioned that since 2017 he started taking steps to create green belts of the cities and that in April 2023 the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt was created, a non-political approach, with more than 150 organizations, civic groups and individuals among its public supporters.
The green belts project is based on three pillars: protecting the forests around the cities; new afforestation, to increase the forest surface and to create connectivity corridors; opening the forest for sports and recreational activities (bike and hiking trails). Currently, only 16% of the surface of Ilfov county is covered by forests, given that a minimum of 30% would be necessary, Alex Gavan said.
As to Thursday's action, he specified that more than 15,000 trees were planted around the capital city (in the Bragadiru area and near Pustnicu Forest).
He mentioned that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, present on Thursday at the planting action, is one of the signatories of the Memorandum for Clean Air, Health and Future, a document also assumed by the leaders of other political parties. At the same time, he emphasized that the approach of the civic platform "Together for the Green Belt" is non-political.
"I've always said that our health, pollution, mitigating climate change is something that has nothing to do with political affiliation. From my point of view, everyone should be at this kind of event, like on December 1, or as you have seen, when you go to the monument. It cannot be otherwise. This memorandum involves the creation of the Bucharest-Ilfov Belt. We have already had two concrete work meetings for the implementation of Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belts", said Alex Gavan.
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