The Slovak Environmental Agency has become an expert guarantor of the new initiative Planting the future
The Ekopolis Foundation’s “Planting the Future” initiative, thanks to which approximately 30 tree plantings throughout Slovakia were already supported during the autumn, is gaining another strategic partner in its ranks. Thanks to the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation, the Slovak Environmental Agency, as a departmental organization of the Ministry of the Environment, will provide professional guarantee and institutional support for future community projects within the initiative.
The main idea of the project Planting the future is to support the return of functional greenery to settlements and open country, where it is necessary. This particularly applies to locations where green infrastructure is missing or damaged. “Through a strategic partnership with the Slovak Environment Agency, we want to connect our initiative with the activities of state and public organizations in the field of tree planting and landscape care,” says Peter Medveď, director of the Ekopolis Foundation, which has been dealing with environmental and civil society issues for almost 30 years.
In the Planting the future initiative, the Ekopolis Foundation connects environmental protection, long-term support of community projects and people’s growing interest in how we can really help our country with partners. The aim of the initiative is to support the planting of trees outside the forest, thus helping to create a diverse and more stable landscape capable of withstanding climate change. “By planting native and domesticated species, biodiversity and ecosystems are preserved and restored. In addition, the climate, soil protection, water protection or landscape-forming function of the environment will be strengthened. And that is extremely important, especially in times of climate change,” emphasizes Michal Maco, CEO of the Slovak Environmental Agency. The program includes educational and informational activities and dissemination of examples of good practice. The symbolic essence of the broader concept is the involvement of people in the planning, planting and care of the ostroma.
The initiative is also supported by the Ministry of the Environment, which directly in the field also supported the planting of trees as part of the initiative. In this context, State Secretary of the MoE Juraj Smatana praised the idea of planting “the right trees in the right place”. “This is exactly what makes this initiative different from other tree planting events. Here we plant trees directly in the land where people live and where nature cannot regenerate itself. We are thereby creating a cultural landscape with regard to nature protection. The thing is all the more sympathetic that original varieties of fruit trees and native species of trees, such as oaks and lindens, are planted,” said Juraj Smatana.
The official opening of the program took place on October 20, 2021, and the new online portal www.sadimebuducnost.sk is also accessible, which serves for the registration of tree plantings outside the forest throughout Slovakia, including those financed by the initiative. At the same time, it will help all those interested in planting trees with planning, professional advice or methodology for meaningful plantings, finding land and obtaining finance.