The Romanians choosing life in the hills

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0:50Dacian Cioloș:Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

1:11Dacian Cioloș:This is The Fifth Floor, at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. I'm your host, Farnak Amidi.

1:27Dacian Cioloș:I don't know if it's an age thing or something else, but these days I hear it a lot from some of the people around me that they've had enough of the London big city life and want to move to the peace and quiet of the countryside. Not me, though. I'm a big city girl. But it seems that a growing number of Romanians are leaving the city to build their dream homes in the lush hills of the countryside. Celebrities are also following this trend, even the country's former prime minister. But this seemingly idyllic lifestyle is not without challenges. So what's driving this trend? And what are the main obstacles people face?

2:09Dacian Cioloș:Romanian journalist Anka Barea has been looking into this story. Anka, welcome to the fifth floor. Great to have you. Thank you so much. Lovely to be here. So tell me about this trend. When did it all start? And who are the people moving out of the cities?

2:25Nazanin Motamedi:So the trend started a few years back with the pandemic acting as a catalyst for change. Many people changed their lifestyle. And while in some other places, people moved back to the city after the pandemic. In Romania, the shift to the countryside is still going strong. We're talking about normal people, people who maybe are from the countryside originally, who moved to the city to pursue education or for better jobs, and now want to go back. There are also people from all kinds of backgrounds, entrepreneurs, digital nomads, retirees, young people with families searching for more space, freedom, perhaps more safety to raise their children.

3:06Nazanin Motamedi:And there are also people who have moved abroad 10, 20, 30 years back, and now they made the money. And now they are moving back because they can afford bigger houses, a garden. And apart from Romanians, there are also foreigners who come to Romania and decide to settle in the countryside. So I think it's really about wanting a more intentional lifestyle with lower consumption and with a smaller environmental impact.

3:33Dacian Cioloș:And Anka, it's not just your ordinary Romanians doing it. It's celebrities, even the former prime minister. Tell me about that.

3:42Nazanin Motamedi:Well, yes. Owning a house in the countryside in Romania seems to be the new status symbol. Actors, musicians, TV personalities, even our former prime minister, Dacian Coloz, who is trained in agriculture, live or have weekend homes in the countryside. and they post on their social media pictures of themselves and their families having coffee in the morning with their feet in the grass.

4:06Dacian Cioloș:So where do they usually move? Is it like a specific area that is super popular?

4:11Nazanin Motamedi:Well, Romania has a varied landscape. The Carpathian Mountains from the north to the west surrounding the beautiful Transylvanian Plateau. And in the south, the Danube River forms a natural border with Bulgaria before flowing into the Black Sea in the southeast. So when it comes to where to settle in Romania, people have quite a variety of options. So some people return to their home villages to fix up family homes, their parents' houses or grandparents' houses. Nostalgia, I guess. While others choose to go to the hills or the mountains just because they want to escape maybe the summer heat. In the recent years, Romanian cities have become very, very hot due to climate change.

4:55Nazanin Motamedi:Also, many settle near big cities because they want easier access to schools, to hospitals, to the jobs. So they go to the suburbs. Or just to the closest village or closest small city. Some just go deep into remote areas seeking freedom and wilderness.

5:12Dacian Cioloș:From what I understand, many of the people who live in the cities live in these communist era blocks. And with the summers getting hotter, these buildings are also becoming hotter. And people find it unbearable.

5:28Nazanin Motamedi:Yes, they are small as well in size because they were trying to fit in as many people as possible in the blocks. And when you have the choice between living in a small communist built apartment versus just commuting 50 kilometers away and you get the house, you get the garden, you can have a dog, you can grow your own vegetables. And it's quite lush, isn't it? It's green and lush. It is green and lush. There's a lot of unspoiled nature as well. If you want true wilderness, you can find it in Romania. Obviously, living in remote areas comes with challenges as well. You may not have paved roads, you may not have broadband or access to electricity, water.

6:11Nazanin Motamedi:Surprisingly, some people have to still get water from a well. Obviously, people with children are further away from schools because many villages might not have their own school, hospitals as well. So it can be a challenge as well.

6:25Dacian Cioloș:And how do people make a living there? Because as you said, some of these places are really remote. So what kind of jobs do they do?

6:33Nazanin Motamedi:I recently spoke to Andy Hertz, who is a former expat in London. And he has decided to return to Romania a few years back, has created a community. And what is it called? It's called Mutat Latzar Vyatza for a Chas. It means move to the countryside, life without a clock. And Andy, apart from organizing events for the community, he is also an author. He writes books. Some other people are digital nomads. Some people have managed to get jobs in the local communities, maybe as teachers, as car mechanics, or anything that is available or needed in the community as well. Farming? Farming, yes. Yes, you'd be surprised how many people have actually left their jobs in the city, their corporate jobs, and now have started farming in the countryside.

7:28Nazanin Motamedi:They keep animals, even bees make their own honey. Almost everyone has a garden. They plant their own vegetables. They have trees. They have orchards. They own fruits, make jams. People have also invested in the areas where they live using personal resources or even accessing European funds.

7:47Dacian Cioloș:So Anka, tell me more about this community that Andy has started.

7:51Nazanin Motamedi:Andy does not come from a farming family. So when he decided to go back to Romania and buy a house, he lives quite remotely in the Apusen Mountains. This is in the northwest part of Romania. He needed help. He started asking around for advice. And this is how he came up with the idea of setting up an online community where he could connect with other like-minded people, share stories. He invited initially his 10 friends. And now it's a thriving community of over 360 ,000 people and keeps growing.

8:29Dacian Cioloș:I was watching some of the videos and it's like, it's really beautiful. You can see these sheep grazing the fields. It's like very idyllic, very peaceful. Is that what resonates with people? Is that what people are actually looking for in their lives today?

8:45Nazanin Motamedi:I believe so, especially people who have lived for many, many years in busy, crowded, polluted, noisy cities. Andy told me a story that someone shared on his Facebook page. A fight over a rooster with one of his neighbors.

9:03Dacian Cioloș:You will never have a fight like that in the city.

9:06Nazanin Motamedi:Possibly not. So this member asked the community how would they deal with this issue. And interestingly enough, they managed to give him advice, positive advice, on how to peacefully resolve the problem. Andy and his team also organized festivals. This year they are organizing a festival in July and one in August with traditional food, with artists performing artisanal products for sale, such as homemade shoes, jewelry, delicacies.

9:39Dacian Cioloș:So there is a big focus for a lot of these communities on sustainability. What are they doing to have a more sustainable life?

9:48Nazanin Motamedi:One example that comes to mind is housing. some people buy old homes, traditional homes, and they are restoring them in a traditional way, sometimes adding maybe modern touches such as solar panels just to make them more sustainable. I was mentioning earlier the fact that probably everyone who lives in the countryside has a garden and they grow their old vegetables rather than going and buying them from the supermarket. and this idea of consuming what you produce, focusing on organic agriculture as well.

10:24Dacian Cioloș:You know, usually people move to the countryside exactly because of the things that you say. Even sometimes the remoteness of the place is what attracts people. But obviously when these communities move, they start changing the environment as well. What kind of changes are we witnessing in these communities at the moment?

10:43Nazanin Motamedi:So Andy mentioned that when he first moved to the village where he currently lives, the roads were not paved and there was no fiber optic cable because the community over there was pretty elderly and they didn't even know what an email was. and since then now they have fiber optic and the roads are paved schools and hospitals still are lacking in some places people who move to the countryside are working with the local authorities to improve things to move things forward for example in case of an emergency now they have a helicopter service who serves the rural area. Small kids who have to commute to a school in the city have a minibus picking them up.

11:34Dacian Cioloș:And Anka, you work for BBC Monitoring. So mostly you're looking into stories of current affairs and what is developing in the region. How did you come across the story?

11:45Nazanin Motamedi:I cover international politics with a focus mostly on Eastern Europe and Central Europe. I also have an interest in sustainability and I've recently collaborated with BBC News Sustainability. That's how I started thinking more about sustainability stories from around the world, stories that our audience would find inspiring and interesting. And are you going to be ditching your city life anytime soon? Not sure if it's going to be anytime soon, but I feel very tempted. Us as Romanians, we have the countryside in our DNA. I'm a countryside girl. I was raised in the countryside until I moved to Bucharest for university studies.

12:28Nazanin Motamedi:So every time when I go to the countryside and I see the green green fields and children playing... Yeah, the itch to move back. Exactly. Children running around freely in wildflower fields. I really feel like that's where I belong.

12:43Dacian Cioloș:And Cavadea from BBC Monitoring. Our next story is about a Brazilian man who loves trees and being in nature. He spent the past 20 years turning an abandoned wasteland into a park. Andrei Bernat from BBC Brazil went to meet him.

13:01Anca Badea:Helio da Silva is a retired man. He is 73 years old, lives in São Paulo, which is the biggest city of Brazil. And he had a very successful career in the sugar cane industry. but he truly describes himself as a tree planter.

13:21Anca Badea:This is because he's been doing this job of planting trees for almost 22 years now in a very specific place of São Paulo called Chica Chira Linear Park. And just to explain, a linear park is a type of park that's long and narrow. In this space he planted more than 40 ,000 trees.

13:45Anca Badea:Well, the Chiquatira Park is located between Penha and Cangaíba, two neighborhoods of São Paulo that are very populated. And around 20 years ago, the land had only small trees. And according to Mr. da Silva, the area was becoming more degraded each day. Some people started to throw garbage there, and some areas started to become like mini drug dance. In one of my walks here, I noticed that this region was getting every day better. Mr. Da Silva told me that he used to walk on Ticoatira every day before going to work. He decided to start this project to transform the area and start planting trees and creating a park there.

14:32Anca Badea:He started planting only 200 trees, but after some weeks, all the trees were destroyed. Friends and family thought that he should give up and stop the project. And they would ask me, what are you going to do now?

14:46Dacian Cioloș:I said, now it's simple, I'm going to plant 400.