In the municipality of Varna, there has not been a single acre of forested urbanized territories in the last two years. This was learned by EcoVarna after an inquiry under the Law on Access to Public Information by the director of the Engineering Infrastructure and Public Works Directorate, Petar Garbuzov. For the period 2022-2023, only trees were planted in inter-block spaces, private properties, on the streets of the city under implemented compensatory programs, as well as under improvement projects.

The trees planted under compensatory programs compared to those cut down last year were three times less than in 2022, the report from the municipality also shows. While two years ago the balance between planted and cut trees was 665 plus, last year it was only 215. If we take into account that a large part of the trees died in the first year due to lack of care, the balance for the green system of Varna is negative. “More than 1/3 is the failure of the planted trees and bushes under compensatory programs due to lack of adequate care for them. The trees are dying,” according to the observations of agronomist Christiana Opreva.

The reason, on the one hand, is that the climate in Varna has become extremely dry in recent years, and on the other hand, the compensatory programs are implemented on land far from the owner’s property, where the trees are actually cut down.

For several years, the municipality has had a single contract with a legal entity (in May 2023) for free maintenance of green and wooded areas on the territory. According to it, the company has planted 6 palm trees, two coniferous pines, 25 laurel trees and several other herbaceous and shrub species.

According to the municipality’s investment program for the reconstruction and renovation of inter-block spaces, 1,940 trees are planned for planting in the period 2015-2023. This makes an average of 215 trees per year. The municipality specifies that some of the objects are still in the process of realization.

According to Ordinance 7, the minimum required green area per inhabitant in an urbanized environment must be 20 km. m. In the General Development Plan of Varna, it is recorded that it is 10.5 sq. m. Why is this really happening?

Planting a tree in Varna is a mission impossible

We will tell only two examples of how the municipality of Varna makes afforestation by citizens almost impossible.

At the end of last September, the Public Center for Environment and Sustainable Development approached the Mayor of the Municipality, then Ivan Portnih, with a request to plant tree species in the urban environment. A specific area was indicated in the area of Kodja Tepe, which has been cleared to provide a road for another construction investment project. The land is subject to regeneration and compensation for the felled tree vegetation and is co-owned by the municipality. In addition to it, the organization asks the municipality to indicate other land properties under its control, suitable for landscaping.

The answer is in a pre-election situation – a meeting with the former deputy mayor Hristo Ivanov with representatives of the association. Ivanov orders that an inspection be made of the property in which there is an interest for afforestation. A reply arrived a month later, and in it there was not a word about the terrain in question, nor about other suitable places for afforestation in Varna. Only provisions are listed, according to which, in principle, trees are planted by citizens and companies on the territory of the municipality.

The result – there are still planted trees, but bypassing the municipality. At the beginning of December, the Public Center for Environment and Sustainable Development is holding a tree-planting campaign, but in the yard of UMBAL “St. Marina”.

The story of Dimitar Dimitrov from Varna is similar, who at the end of 2019, after almost two years of negotiations with the Mladost district mayor’s office, managed to get a permit to plant 25 perennial trees in an inter-block space in the “Vazrazhdane” district. Dimitrov submitted a request to the town hall to reforest 100 long-term trees in the spring of 2018. His surprise was great when he learned from the area’s landscaping specialist that not only are there no places for afforestation at the moment, there are none planned. However, Dimitar does not give up. He established an initiative committee, on behalf of which he submitted the same request with clearly indicated tens of acres, where, according to the cadastre, it is municipal property and can be landscaped. Whether it was because the year turned out to be a pre-election one again or for other reasons, Dimitar managed to arrange the planting of 25 trees.

What needs to change

“The procedure is so cumbersome, difficult and lengthy that it can sometimes take up to 2 years, and that with extremely motivated pursuit of the municipality, in order to get a result – planting a tree, even in the garden in front of the block”. This is stated by Sabina Maksimova, who leads the afforestation campaign initiated by the Public Center for Environment and Sustainable Development. In practice, we had to skip the municipality in order to plant a few trees in Varna, says Sabina about the organized afforestation campaign in the yard of UMBAL “St. Marina”. With the hospital management, it is again necessary to go through certain conciliation procedures, coordination, examination of the status and plans of the field, a decision of the Management Board. But that took a few weeks, not years, Maksimova says. According to her, the realization of the action is proof that if the municipality works with the same coordination, it can make decisions much faster.

What is necessary

Municipality of Varna to develop:

A public document describing the procedures for planting a tree on municipal land by an individual or legal entity.

It is extremely necessary to determine areas that need afforestation and which have been studied in advance, conditionally called “green seal areas”. They should be in the public domain.

To have clear rules for planting time, to open specific time windows for afforestation.

Coordination of citizens with professional landscapers by the municipal administration.

Possibility of easy and quick communication with the municipality, for example a “fast track” for creating and implementing an afforestation campaign.

Inventory of plant species permitted for planting on the relevant municipal land.

We are reforesting, and then?

Part of any afforestation program should be sustainability, Sabina Maksimova is convinced. In order for a tree to survive, it must be watered regularly at certain times. Currently, the municipality relies on whoever plants a tree to take care of it for at least a few years. Most actions for afforestation, not only in Varna, are conducted by volunteers – people who have given up their free time in the name of something good. However, their commitment extends only to the specific action and it is very difficult to organize them into follow-up maintenance actions.

In order for the planted species to survive, they must necessarily fall into the areas serviced by the landscaping companies with which the municipality has contracts. “This has never happened before. One had to go through the bureaucratic hassles, plant a tree and take care of it by oneself. This is not a sustainable model and therefore the success rate is very low,” commented Sabina Maksimova.

Methods for landscaping municipal grounds

Although purely theoretical, the Municipality of Varna has prescribed methods for the landscaping of municipal grounds by citizens and companies. One of the possibilities is a one-year contract between an individual or a legal entity for “Free maintenance of landscaped and forested areas on the territory of the Municipality of Varna – parks, gardens, playgrounds, sports grounds and inter-block spaces or parts thereof”. Applications are submitted using an approved form – sample #1 from the “Ordinance of the Municipality of Varna for the construction, management, control and protection of the green system on the territory of the Municipality of Varna”. It can be obtained at the information center of the Municipality of Varna or an application can be submitted in the form of free text. The regulation describes the obligations of the contracting authority and the contractor.

Since 2019, the Municipality of Varna provides opportunities for financial support for “Greening and beautification projects”, related to the development and protection of the green system and improving the state of the municipal green areas. The means for their realization are provided within the budget funds determined for the respective year. There are those implemented around inter-block spaces, but they are not many, as usually the funds provided for this are not spent. Associations of owners of multi-family buildings can apply. The conditions are described in the Ordinance of O6C Varna for financial support of “Landscaping and beautification projects”.

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