Forested areas decreased by 400 hectares over the last 3 years, according to a report of the Court of Accounts. Analyzing the report, Expert-Grup specialist Tatiana Savva found out that most the losses can be attributed to the forestry workers’ lack of professionalism and faulty management.

She told a press conference at IPN that the financial losses are around 7 million lei. “How did these losses occur? First of all because forest areas are being illegally occupied and used and also many forests aren’t properly demarcated”, explained Savva.

In her study, she points out that Moldsilva is yet to develop an integrated system for keeping track of forests and the forestry cadaster. It’s not even clear who are the people who should be responsible for accomplishing this task.

“The lack of a forestry register and issues with the demarcation of forests allows forest parcels to be bought and used illegally. The lack of money for keeping track of forests and demarcating them is more a lack of interest and capacity, because even when there was money, it wasn’t properly used or the demarcation was done according to the interests or local public authorities or private landowners”, explained Tatiana Savva.

Another problem is the renting of forests. According to the expert, this mechanism needs to be revised. If the renting of forests continues, it should be done on the basis of development projects selected by contest. As regards the existing contracts, Savva thinks authorities should keep track of them in order to collect the rent money. Additionally, people should have free access to the rented areas.

The study was done within the project “The budgetary process in Moldova: monitoring transparency and promoting public control”.