Thanks to many nature lovers, today Fruska Gora is richer for 13,000 oak trees. A large planting action was carried out by the EXIT Foundation and the Delegation of the European Union as part of the EU Natura2000 project. “Give back to nature, join and plant a tree”, a joint initiative of the EU Delegation and the EXIT Foundation started at this year’s EXIT Festival.
This is only the first in a series of major environmental actions by Exit, which, with this afforestation, also launches its large environmental platform under the symbolic name “Green Revolution”. The aim of this unique platform is to mobilize the public and initiate massive afforestation in the country, region, and world, where over one million trees would be planted in Serbia in the coming period alone.
“Someone said planting a tree means planting hope, and today we start planting 13,000 hopes to sustain nature and help it fight climate change. Our planet is sick, worse than temperature, and we have to do something about it lower the temperature and let it heal, “said Ambassador Sem Fabrizi, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia.
Ambassador Fabrizi added that for many years the European Union and Serbia have been collaborating on various environmental projects to improve the quality of soil, water, air and today we are on a new mission.
“However, we from the European Union are very ambitious, we have set a new goal. Namely, the European Commission has set the environmental priority in the Green Deal initiative as its first priority, and I hope that Serbia will join us in this and that we will take some important steps, “concludes the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia.
The first green steps in the afforestation action were made during this year’s Exit Festival when the campaign “Join – Plant a Tree” was presented to visitors for the purpose of finding volunteers.
“For years and decades, EXIT has raised awareness of the importance of protecting the environment, but today we are living in a time when the situation is truly alarming. Even if you deny climate change, can anyone really have anything against planting forests and parks, “Exit Foundation Director Dusan Kovacevic said on Fruska Gora
Afforestation is the simplest and most effective way of combating climate change, says Environment Minister Goran Trivan.
“The European Union is a leader in environmental protection, and what we have here today, apart from the formal support of Ambassador Fabrizi, is our need to look out for them, in terms of how many percents of forests we have in Europe and in Serbia, how much we are prepared to do to Serbia is afforested somewhere near 30 percent, and our goal is to exceed 40, “says Minister Trivan.
The Republic of Serbia with the financial support of the European Union Delegation is implementing a specific project for nature conservation to identify all potential sites to develop the Natura 2000 network in the country with the aim to protect core areas for a sub-set of species or habitat types listed in the Habitats and Birds Directives. They are deemed to be of European importance because they are endangered, vulnerable, rare, endemic or present outstanding examples of typical characteristics of one or more of Europe’s nine biogeographical regions. 89 habitats type and 150 animal species from Habitats Directive annexes and 116 birds species from the Annex I of Birds Directive are part of Serbia.
