INFOGRAPHIC / March 21 - International Forest Day. How many thousands of hectares of the forest does Moldova have?

Every year, March 21st is marked the International Day of Forests. A day that reminds people of the importance and the many benefits of the forest. The Republic of Moldova has an area of ​​379.5 thousand hectares of forest, which constitutes just over 11 per cent of the total area of ​​the country.

In 2020, the International Day of Forests is celebrated under the generic „Forest and biodiversity - too precious to lose them!” 

The main purpose for which the United Nations (UN) set up this day is to „raise awareness on the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests, for the benefit of present and future generations.” The UN recommends that the Member States organize actions to restore forests of all types, by organizing tree-planting campaigns.

The Moldsilva Agency has announced that it will organize a large tree planting campaign on this occasion.

According to Dumitru Cojocaru, the director of the „Moldsilva” Agency, at present, in the nurseries of forestry enterprises subordinated to the institution, there are 12 million seedlings, low and high size seedlings, which could be planted during the greening campaign, under the conditions of financing by State Ecological Fund.

Below is an infographic showing that in 2018, 26.8 thousand hectares of forests were cut down. Which means that every hour Moldova lost three hectares of forest. At the same time, the regeneration of the forest took place on an area of ​​five times smaller, of 4.9 thousand hectares, of which only a little over one thousand hectares represent plantations and seeds.

According to the Moldsilva agency, the area of ​​26.7 thousand hectares constitutes the perimeter where forestry or logging operations were carried out. At the same time, environmentalists say the data is alarming, and the state should find alternatives to legally harvested firewood.

„The data are alarming and the situation in the forest fund is, beyond the ecological aspects, a national security issue. I have intervened dozens of times in the state institutions, in the Presidency, Parliament and Government, I have made enough arguments for the decision-makers to include the care for forests in their agenda, but it is worse for worse”, says Alecu Reniţă, President of the Movement Environmentalists from Moldova, for Natura magazine.

The source:  INFOGRAFIC/ 21 martie – Ziua Internațională a Pădurilor. Câte mii de hectare de pădure are Moldova [online] [citat 15.03.20]. Disponibil: ecopresa.md