Romanian PM leaves suit for T-shirt to help clean up Bucharest’s Vacaresti Natural Park

Romania’s Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos joined over 100 volunteers who picked up garbage from Bucharest’s Vacaresti Natural Park on Thursday afternoon, June 30. Environment minister Cristiana Pasca Palmer and other Government officials also joined the initiative, which was coordinated by local environmental organization Let’s Do It, Romania!. The Government led by Dacian Ciolos declared the Vacaresti Lake, also known as Bucharest’s Delta, a natural park with protected area status, on May 11. The Vacaresti Natural Park has thus become the first urban protected area in Romania and the largest green area in Bucharest. The greening of the area started a few weeks ago and some 2,200 cubic meters of waste have been gathered with excavators and other large equipment since then. The next steps for the Vacaresti Natural Park are framing the management plan, which will define the park’s various areas, the degree of protection for each of them, and the economic activities allowed, and implementing it, Ciolos said on Thursday, according to Agerpres. He also added that the private land owners who have land plots in the park will keep them, but will have to respect the park administration’s rules and will be compensated in return. The park’s management plan will be elaborated by the organization that will be designated to manage it. The procedures to select the park’s administrator will take at least a month and the management contract will be signed for 10 years, according to environment minister Cristiana Pasca Palmer. It will take between 6 months and a year for the management plan to be drafted based on scientific studies, she added. The Vacaresti Natural Park, which formed on the site of the former Vacaresti Lake, an artificial lake created during Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime, has turned wild and now hosts many rare bird species, as well as mammals and fish species, which populate large swamps, ponds, and reed areas. Several Roma families have also found shelter in the area. For the moment, the state company in charge of managing Romania’s waters takes care of the park’s keeping. The Romanian Waters National Administration owns a large part of the Vacaresti Natural Park’s 184 hectares. The Environment Ministry will also select a security firm to guard the park. The Vacaresti Natural Park is a unique area in Europe. British newspaper The Guardian recently wrote a story after visiting the park. Lives of families who live in Bucharest’s Vacaresti Delta, captured in photo exhibition editor@romania-insider.com