The chairman of the Ecologist Movement of Moldova Alecu Renita repeatedly sent an open letter to the Government, asking abrogating the regulations concerning the leasing out of forests for a period of 49 years, which were approved when the Cabinet was headed by Vasile Tarlev.

In a news conference at IPN, Alecu Renita said that by particular illegal schemes, the leased out forests are afterward privatized and the state is thus dispossessed of property that, according to the Constitution, belongs to the people. The letter addressed to Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici says the national forest sector is close to a disaster and institutional reforms are needed to delimit the regulation, inspection and management responsibilities.

According to Alecu Renita, the regulations approved during the time of the Tarlev Government were formulated by order of the ruling politicians and were designed to enrich the Communist leaders, high-ranking officials and officials of the Forestry Agency “Moldsilva”. The then head of state Vladimir Voronin was the first who benefitted from these regulations as he rented the forest in Tiganca for a period of 49 years.

The head of the Ecologist Movement noted that the abrogation of the regulations during the last three years has been requested by a large number of NGOs, personalities and local communities that lost the forests, but nothing relevant has been done yet. The only action on the part of the state was the issuing of an order by former Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, by which the leasing out of new forests, until the existing problems are solved, was banned.

Alecu Renita said the putting into practice of the regulations led to a large-scale theft and compromised the leasing out of forests for recreational purposes. Over the next few years, Moldova risks remaining without forests if no measures are taken immediately.