The Municipality of Békéscsaba considers it important to ensure that the city remains environmentally friendly, livable, and has good air quality despite intensive agricultural production and urban traffic. To improve air quality, it is crucial to plant additional forests at various points in the city, develop the existing forest stock, and regularly maintain them.

The LIFE IP HungAIRy project, titled "Improving air quality at eight Hungarian regions through the implementation of air quality plan measures," aims to address one of the most significant environmental challenges: improving air quality across 8 regions, covering 10 Hungarian cities.

Békéscsaba is involved in two developments in this project, which will conclude on December 31, 2026: one is the installation of a permanent air quality monitoring station in the city, and the other is a tree planting program, which, in terms of scope, will be one of the largest such programs in the city.

To prevent and reduce agricultural dust pollution, it is important to surround the city with forests in a circular manner, creating protective and conditioning forest strips around the urban area. The primary goal of the current tree planting program is to reduce the dust pollution arriving in Békéscsaba.

To this end, Békéscsaba City Development Nonprofit Ltd., with the involvement of experts, has developed a tree planting program aimed at improving the city’s air quality, which outlines an effective solution for reducing the concentration of suspended dust entering the city.

In the program’s feasibility study, the creation of forest strips took into account the city’s wind conditions and available forested areas, while the traffic data of the three busiest urban, transit, and public transport roads in Békéscsaba were examined in relation to the planting of street trees. Based on these data, the emission scale from traffic was also assessed using relevant literature. The planting locations were determined based on these findings, which are as follows:

1. Areas near Báthori Street – Franklin Street
2. Park Forest-CsabaPark
3. Areas surrounding the wastewater treatment plant
4. Tree replacements in Lencsés Housing Estate
5. Replacement of street trees along major traffic routes (Szarvasi Road, Orosháza Road, and Kolozsvári Street)
6. Ditch plantation (areas near Békéscsaba 0732/2 and 0740/1 plot numbers)

The planting and afforestation will cover an area of more than 15 hectares. During the work, approximately 105,000 magyár (local) saplings and 1,265 saplings for street tree planting will be planted. The contracting agreement for the planting was signed on May 6, 2025, so the work is expected to begin in the second half of 2025. The contractor will also be responsible for the one-year maintenance of the planted stock, which will ensure better survival rates for the plants.

This current tree planting program is expected to be the beginning of an afforestation program, with future elements already emerging in several areas (e.g., Park Forest-CsabaPark, afforestation of ditches).