Forest Dump

By Gordana Andric
Belgrade : A group of concerned locals have for years been taking responsibility for cleaning up the woods at Zvezdara. Their autumn clean-up, last weekend was conducted in the knowledge that swathes of the wood are under threat from developers.

This was the third outing organised this year by ‘Protect Zvezdara Wood’  a group of local residents. Just four months after their last clean-up they still managed to fill more than three containers with rubbish. But rubbish may be the least of their concerns if  plans to build on part of the woods go ahead.
Aleksandar Necic remembers helping to plant the wood with his friends, just after the war. “See how big these trees are now,” he says proprietorially, “But every evening when my wife and I take a walk we have to pick up a brick or a rock and throw it in the bin.”
“We are trying to keep the wood clean for our children,” says Dejan Simonovic. Pointing at two youngsters helping with the work he said “these two kids, they were here last time and they are here now, that’s how they’ll learn to take care of nature and their environment.”
Zvezdara wood spreads across 137 hectares and is one of the largest green spaces in Belgrade. However, according to Belgrade’s urban planners  the wood will be reduced in size to make room for housing, roads, a viewing tower, a sports centre and a narrow gauge tourist railway.
“A group of us were born here and we have been living next to the wood for the last thirty or forty years, so we try to take care of it. We have some great memories of the place,” says Zoran Pavlovic.
“We cleaned up the wood in June, but just look how much rubbish is here again, it’s just keeps coming. We did a great job, it’s much cleaner, but we can’t do it on our own, the authorities have to get involved and start taking care,” says Zoran.
In response to the development plans, Protect Zvezdara Wood issued a statement: “Roads and woods can not co-exist. If the new roads are cut through the wood, there will be nothing left. The Zvedara Wood will... lose its character and purpose.”
The group has received some support from the secretariat for environmental protection which issued a negative opinion on the project but, says Dejan Trpkovic, from the secretariat “there are other justified interests, such as those of people whose houses are in the wood and who don’t have access roads.”
 The Secretariat and the Institute for Nature Protection of Serbia are attemping to make the wood a protected zone and their proposal is due for discussion in the city’s parliament in December.
But even then, says Trpkovic, “it doesn’t mean that there will be no construction works. Works that do not endanger the wood could be implemented.”
Belgrade Insight