This is how Belgrade will become a “garden city”: EUR 28 million for the greening of the capital city by 2032, new company Sume Beograda also planned

The City of Belgrade has put up for public inspection the Draft Strategy of the Green Infrastructure of the City of Belgrade, for the period from 2025 until 2031.

The document which was prepared by the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Belgrade and which sums up the measures needed for Belgrade to become a “garden city,” it is estimated that the total costs of implementing the Strategy in said period would be around RSD 3,300,000,000, that is, close to EUR 28.2 million, partly from the city budget, and partly from donations.

Public-private partnerships are planned too, as is the forming of a fund for the realization of green infrastructure which can partially be secured from the proceeds from the compensation for the removal and endangering elements of green infrastructure.

The strategy plans to increase the jurisdiction of the Secretariat for Environmental Protection of the City of Belgrade, but also to form a new public enterprise under the potential name of “Sume Beograda”, whose core activity would be the management of city, suburban and out-of-city forests in the territory of the City of Belgrade.

Amendments to the Law on Environmental Protection as the umbrella law for the green infrastructure are also planned.

– The amendments should primarily encompass Article 20 of the Law, where the concept and the status of green infrastructure as a general good and that the development and preservation of green infrastructure elements is an activity of general interest should be defined – the document says.

One of the measures within the Strategy is also the preparation of a digital database of the green infrastructure of the City of Belgrade, as well as a digital catalog of the optimal locations for forestation.

The preparation of the technical standards for the designing of specific elements of green infrastructure such as various types of rooftop gardens and vertical greenery, as well as a standards guidebook pertaining to the technical details, with a subsequent integration of these innovative green infrastructure solutions into the surfaces of public facilities, residential facilities and public spaces (urban pockets, green spots, rain gardens and similar structures), is also planned.

All this, it is added, will also require an increase in the number of expert staff for affairs having to do with the preservation (inspection service) and development of the green infrastructure (services and companies in charge of construction, raising and maintenance), as well as the training of the employees and the modernization of the equipment.

A new business-organizational model for on-commission and exchange-market-based sale of the total available seed material which suits the conditions of the City of Belgrade is planned as well.

The model would entail the concept of a digital platform which brings together all the relevant information about the supply of and demand for the seedlings.

The strategy also envisages for those in charge to address the problem of the regulations which treat the problem of the management of waste from construction and demolition, as well as the defining of the modalities for the preservation of the existing soil resources (the humus layer) and the forming of new resources (the production of organic substrates from various plant waste sources).

The forming of a “bio-base”, which would secure the needs of these resources at the level of the City of Belgrade is also planned.

In addition to that, the Strategy envisages the expansion of the volume of the production of the existing base of tree and shrubbery saplings.

Finally, the Strategy also plans the improvement of the knowledge of all those interested in the planning and construction of green infrastructure, the raising of awareness in the populace and their inclusion in the environmental estimate assessments and urban plans, as well as the media promotion of green infrastructure.

The Draft Strategy is available for public inspection until November 25.

B. P.

Grad Beograd

Grad Beograd, Sekretarijat za zaštitu životne sredine

Šumarski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu

City of Belgrade

Secretariat for Environmental Protection of the City of Belgrade

Draft Strategy of the Green Infrastructure of Belgrade 2025 2032

PE Sume Beograda

Law on Environmental Protection

forestation

green infrastructure digital database