The forum worked through the benefits of tree planting, from cleaner air through soil protection to the effect on city dwellers' health. It also covered the continuation of Debrecen's tree-planting programme and its shelterbelt planting. Ten exemplary environmentally conscious communities received recognition at the event, each awarded the municipality's Sustainable Debrecen Award.

In line with the measures of the Green Code, a further Debrecen green programme began this summer with the aim of planting another ten thousand trees. The first was a two-kilometre shelterbelt of 150 flowering ash saplings at Felső-Józsa, planted thanks to our company.

The Deputy CEO of our company, recognised with the Sustainable Debrecen Award in 2022, emphasised that trees are planted in Debrecen because living in a green urban environment matters to those who live here. As he put it: we are in harmony with nature, and that is certainly helped by having many trees around us — they give shade, and we can experience the natural world around us, so we do everything we can to operate in as green an environment as possible.

Photo: Szabolcs Kandert

Pál László Győrösi, PR Manager at Richter Gedeon Nyrt., recalled that in 2021 they planted 68 Japanese flowering cherry trees in the area between the Vágóhíd utca flyover and Budai Ézsaiás utca, now known as the Alma Mater grove. The 120-year-old company has set itself the objective of doubling the size of that grove every five years, together with the municipality. He added that Richter's mission is health, and that the purpose of their long-term planting initiative is to contribute to sustaining and improving our environment and increasing green space in Debrecen.

András Kuhn, Chief Gardener of the City of Debrecen, highlighted the part trees play in water retention among their beneficial effects, and said that a further ten thousand trees and more shelterbelt planting will follow next year. A key objective, he emphasised, is to bring shelterbelts back to Debrecen, which could drastically reduce the city's dust load.

Orsolya Hamecz, chartered conservation engineer and head of the municipality's green space department, said tree planting has a tradition in Debrecen going back centuries — one the city continues today, and is indeed renewing.
In her view, planting in Debrecen now proceeds to a plan and on a sound professional basis, and the trees are protected and valued. Five million square metres of grassland across the city are also irrigated and maintained, with an effort to establish wildflower meadows and bee pastures as part of that work.

This year 10 outstandingly environmentally conscious communities applied successfully for the Sustainable Debrecen Award: Tócóskerti Közösségi Kert, Rada Árnyékolás Kft., the Trans-Tisza Water Directorate, Százszorszép Óvoda, the JóBringa cycle shop and workshop of Debreceni Kerékpár Kft., Fancsika Fans Természetvédelmi és Ökoturisztikai Egyesület, Gönczy Pál Általános Iskola, Neopac Hungary Kft., TÁRS-95 Kft. and Karácsony György Utcai Óvoda. The city's sustainability award was presented to representatives of the corporate, institutional and civic communities after the JövőMűhely panel discussion. Thirty communities now hold the distinction.

Closing the event, Deputy Mayor Ákos Balázs said: values, style, movement — that is what characterises the green efforts of Debrecen's people, and our shared value is a human-centred one: respect and love for nature, which is really about us, the people of Debrecen, our children and the generation to come.

Source: dehir.hu (in Hungarian)
https://www.dehir.hu/zold-hirek/tiz-kornyezettudatos-kozosseg-kapta-meg-a-fenntarthato-debrecen-dijat/2024/12/10/