Environment organizations of the capital could announce the prosecution about massive cutting of poplars

Environment non-governmental organizations of the capital could announce the prosecution about massive poplar cutting, made by mayoralty. Beside this, the ecologists could call the population not to take part in the green action, started by them few years ago, „A tree for our lasting”, the chairman of Chisinau Territorial Ecologist Movement, Vladimir Garaba. According to Garaba, massive poplar cutting is an illegal action, made only on the ground of a cutting agenda and not of a Program, which, usually, is set after the situation is analyzed and forecasted regarding the impact made by the cutting, and it is adopted a plan of preparing the planting material. More than this, in case of a Program, the specialists had to monitor every tree in order to determine its real situation and the necessity to be cut. In Chisinau, the cutting is done on the principle of tree species, he mentioned, and sure of the fact that the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources did not have the right to coordinate a working program in this sense. This coordination, Garaba said, made mayoralty to feel protected and to cut off the trees, absolutely necessary for cleaning the air. Vladimir Garaba also noted that at the moment non-governmental environment organizations discuss about the possibility to inform the prosecution on this cutting, and to found the persons responsible. In the same time the population will be called not to practice the action „A tree for our lasting”, which shall start on 1 April 2006. The head of the Green Spaces Management, Grigore Taban, said during the operative meeting of mayoralty on 27 March that for two weeks there were cut 444 of those 9,000 female poplars, including those of the street Pan Halipa. The cutting will continue for a month, when other 2,000 will be cut off, and when the leaves appear the cutting will be stopped till next winter. Mentioning that „in Chisinau is done a big thing for population’s health”, interim mayor of Chisinau Vasile Ursu said during the same meeting that ecologists „rouse the citizens against local public authorities. „They consider themselves as friend of green spaces, but do not do anything to improve their use”, Ursu noted, disturbed by the ecologists’ statements and, especially, of their complaint addressed to government of Moldova, asking to stop poplar cutting. He required organizing urgently a press conference in order to explain the need to cut off the poplars. Ursu mentioned that those 43,000 trees would be plant this spring. Referring to the price that Moldosilva will sell the trees, Ursu said that it is a symbolic one, and the payment will be done gradually. The Ecologic Fund, which offered to local authorities 600,000 lei for purchasing planting material, this year is quiet, „being upset of this cutting”, according to Ursu. The price of a poplar varies between 700 and 1,500 lei. Local public authorities of the municipality announced previously that there should be cut off 9,000 poplars.