After 10 years, Văcărești Natural Park NGO terminates collaboration with Bucharest City Hall

The Văcărești Natural Park Association, which helped at the establishment of the natural park and the conservation of the area over 10 years, has terminated the collaboration with the Bucharest City Hall, while asking gor the resignation of the current management of the Văcărești Natural Park Administration, set up by the municipality. The NGO is a co-administrator of the natural park with the Capital City Hall.

The NGO accuses that the municipality has not yet guarded the park, with 6 fires taking place there in recent months, demolishing the park’s visiting infrastructure, not communicating the park’s management plans and ordering studies with public money, although the association he could make them available for free.

”The Văcărești Natural Park Association does not want to endorse the incompetent and chaotic work of the Văcărești Natural Park Administration (an institution subordinated to the Bucharest City Hall) and sounds the alarm: six months after taking over the administration, the Bucharest City Hall, through the structure established, it risks affecting the integrity of the park and compromising the work done in the park in the last ten years”, the NGO said.

The association accused the the administration of the Văcărești Natural Park that it demolishes the park’s visiting infrastructure (according to the notifications received), appreciated by tens of thousands of visitors. “The PNV Association has formally committed to bear the costs of their repairs if required by technical expertise. The administration did not communicate anything in this regard. The park is not properly guarded and vegetation fires continue to affect the park. In the last two months there have been 6 fires. Remember, on April 5, 15 hectares of the 183 of the Park burned, and not 1.5 hectares, as the Administration’s management has mentioned several times.”

The Park Administration is also blamed for not publicly and transparently communicating the park management plans. “For example, the purpose of the presence of drilling equipment in the last days in the park is unknown. Their presence was reported by the park’s neighbors, who sent photos.The Park Administration opposed the planting of trees on the outer boundary of the park, near the road arteries, with a scientific role, to protect and reduce pollution. In recent years, the PNV Association has planted and cared for trees that will form a forest curtain around the park. The PNV association is constantly excluded from the park’s management plans, although last year, through the signature of the Mayor General, it was officially recognized as a co-administrator in the future management structure.”

The Văcărești Natural Park Association was founded in 2014 with the aim of establishing and managing the Văcărești Natural Park, the first urban natural park in Romania and the largest compact green space in Bucharest. The association carries out information and education projects for the environment, actions of monitoring and conservation of biodiversity and facilitates the public access to the urban nature by arranging and maintaining the infrastructure for visiting the park.

The vision of the association is for Văcărești Natural Park to become a model of nature management in the urban environment. In 2021, starting from the model of the Văcărești Natural Park, the Association initiated the project of establishing the national network of protected urban natural areas.