Ecologists against cutting down Capital’s poplars

The Environment NGOs will institute proceedings and appeal to the support of the international institutions accredited to Moldova and the foreign ones, including the Council of Europe, in case cutting down poplars from the capital will continue. 9 environment organizations signed a joint declaration in this respect. The chairman of the Chisinau Territorial Organization of the Ecologist Movement, Vladimir Garaba, announced that the environment organizations condemn this outrageous fact in a joint declaration, which will be addressed to the leadership of Moldova and local authorities too. The ecologists are ready to appeal, in case cutting down tress goes further, to the court and international organisms. According to the ecologists, the campaign of cutting down the Canadian poplars of the capital is a flagrant violation of the Law on Green Spaces, and other normative acts. In less than 2 months, Garaba notes, about 1,000 old trees were cut down, the majority of them being healthy and strong. The trees were cut down in Chisinau’s most polluted zones, such as Uzinelor, Bogdan Voievod, Pan Halipa, Tudor Vladimirescu, and Ismail streets etc. At the same time, Garaba says, thousands of petitions on behalf of the citizens complaining about ill trees, for instance exposing to danger the power lines, were left without attention. He mentions that these activities are against the international conventions ratified by RM and the national strategies in force. Moreover, the cutting works were made without the approval of the Chisinau Ecological Agency. At the same time, Garaba highlights, in spite of the legal provisions, the Program on restoring the green areas of Chisinau for 2006, provided in disposal no.214-d of 7 March of the interim mayor, is only a schedule of the works, coordinated by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MERN), without being approved by the institutions of the Academy of Science, without taking into consideration the population’s protests, scientists’ proposals, of the specialists of the forestry, Environment NGO’s. Garaba says that those 1,000 young trees planted this spring instead of the old ones were compromised, a great part of the seeding material being weak. The ecologists urge MERN to cancel the decision of coordinating the Program on restoring the green areas of Chisinau for 2006 until the mayoralty of Chisinau municipality presents a scientifically based program, consulted with the public, and approved by the Municipal Council. Concomitantly, the ecologists demand to abrogate the interim mayor’s disposal regarding the implementation of the mentioned program.