Sofia Municipality is creating green belts around schools

Afforestation is a key point in the local administration's climate change adaptation measures

Some 1,000 deciduous trees of the maple, ash, plane and linden species will be planted in the yards of 26 schools of Sofia. The initiative includes schools from all regions of the Bulgarian capital, whose yards allow the creation of green belts of trees. The schools were selected after checking the available vegetation in their yards.

Sofia - green capital

This year's campaign "My Green School and My Green Kindergarten", which aims to enrich the green ecosystem of the city has already started with the planting of trees in the yard of the 42nd "Hadji Dimitar" primary school in the "Hadji Dimitar" neighbourhood. The Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandukova, the Deputy Mayor for Ecology Desislava Bileva, the Mayor of Poduyane district Eva Mitova and the Director of the 42nd “Hadji Dimitar” Primary School Fidanka Lazarova together with students planted trees in the school's yard.

This year, up until now, green belts have been created in 16 metropolitan schools in the areas of Nadezhda, Ovcha Kupel, Mladost, Iskar, Studentski grad and Izgrev, informs Sofia Municipality. The initiative has been running since 2017 and so far about 2,700 trees have been planted in the yards of 510 metropolitan schools and kindergartens.

Afforestation is a key activity, part of the measures taken by Sofia Municipality to adapt to climate change. In addition, green belts insulate from dust and noise of cars passing by schools.

During the summer months, schoolyards become so-called thermal screens that further heat the city's air. Therefore, hard work is being done on afforestation of schoolyards, this will have a beneficial effect on the urban microclimate in the long run. Impact landscaping of schoolyards is carried out in October and November, which are the month most suitable for this activity.

Afforestation on a larger scale of the urban environment is also currently underway - sidewalks of streets and boulevards, as well as separate areas around bus stops, are already having trees planted all throughout the Bulgaria capital.