The Together for the Green Belt\/\u00cempreuna\u0306 pentru Centura Verde\u00a0civic platform is calling on Romania\u2019s main political parties, namely the Social Democrats (PSD), Liberals (PNL), USR, and Hungarians\u2019 party UDMR, to include green belts in their next governing program, with a specific focus on the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt. The initiative is framed as a critical national project for public health and climate adaptation, and a necessary next step following recent legislative progress.<\/p>\n
The civic platform has previously secured political and administrative backing, including through the signing of the \u201cMemorandum for Clean Air, Health, and Future<\/a>\u201d and the adoption of the new Forestry Code in 2024<\/a> that legally recognizes green belts across Romania.\u00a0<\/p>\n These belts aim to improve air quality, reduce urban pollution, mitigate climate change, and provide green infrastructure for recreation and biodiversity preservation, the initiators say. They are now pushing for the next government to draft and adopt a national methodology for green belt creation within the first 18 months of its mandate, according to the Forestry Code, as well as to establish a dedicated financing mechanism for local authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cDesignating and implementing green belts for Romania\u2019s cities is a priority, part of a pragmatic and responsible solution. Otherwise, the future will impose it on us anyway, but at a much higher cost to our health, economy, environment, and ethics,\u201d said conservationist Alex G\u0103van, founder of the platform and of the Green Belt Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter managing, over the past two and a half years, to legislate green belts through unprecedented political commitment, including their designation and implementation in the next governing coalition\u2019s program is the next logical, necessary, and expected step. It\u2019s an essential move toward building cities that are more climate-resilient, less polluted, and, by extension, home to healthier and happier people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Ciprian G\u0103lu\u0219c\u0103, executive director of the foundation, also stressed the urgency of government action amid prolonged droughts and more frequent flooding.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth Bucharest and other cities in the plains are extremely vulnerable to heatwaves, drought, and pollution, and without urgent measures, we risk turning them into uninhabitable spaces as early as 2035. Developing green belts around our urban centers is a matter of national security and must be included among the top priorities of the next government,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt, the cornerstone of this initiative, has already been safeguarded under the new Forestry Code, which restores the protective and social roles of over 26,000 hectares of forest in Ilfov – the county surrounding Bucharest. These areas are now shielded from commercial logging.<\/p>\n Backed by over 150 NGOs, civic groups, and public figures, the Together for the Green Belt platform said it remains an apolitical initiative and continues to work in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment. An initiative of the\u00a0Alex G\u0103van Foundation,\u00a0it was born in the spring of 2023<\/a>\u00a0amid the alarming pollution levels in Bucharest and other cities in the country, combined with the concerning deforestation around the capital and other peri-urban areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n irina.marica@romania-insider.com<\/p>\n (Photo source: courtesy of\u00a0Alex G\u0103van)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Together for the Green Belt\/\u00cempreuna\u0306 pentru Centura Verde\u00a0civic platform is calling on Romania\u2019s main political parties, namely the Social Democrats (PSD), Liberals (PNL), USR, and Hungarians\u2019 party UDMR, to include green belts in their next governing program, with a specific focus on the Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt. The initiative is framed as a critical national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}