România Verde – ?

When I was in Bucuresti this December I decided to take a walk in the Botanical Garden. Of course this kind of parks are more beautiful in summertime but they usually offer nice perspectives in snowlandscapes as well.
When you walk towards the Grădina Botanică ”Dimitrie Brândză” you notice that something else then trees is growing there…

This kind of ironic contrast – is it typical for Romania?!
You come closer and you notice a sign which gives information about a project called “România Verde”. Green Romania? And in the background industrial chimneys are growing to the sky. The only green thing here is maybe the toxic smoke, isn’t it?!

Okay, what exactly is “România Verde”? I visited the website

http://www.romaniaeverde.ro

and I learned that there is a non-profit-organisation named “Asociația Centrul Ecologic Green Area”.
The common opinion of the members is: In our time of rush and noise in restless cities there is one important place we need – a place where we can calm down, a quite place to relax and to listen to silence again.
Botanical Gardens are places like this. The aim of the project “România Verde” is, to make well-kept parks out of Botanical Gardens which are a bit ignored and not very well known. So it is also important to advertise them and on the website you can find presentations of nine Botanical Gardens in Romania. The “Asociația Centrul Ecologic Green Area” takes care of them.

Otherwise the factory next to the Grădina Botanică ”Dimitrie Brândză” in Bucuresti may would have swallowed this park already…

And this would be a pity, because even if the park is not very green at the moment it contains beautiful corners: