Moldova signed two agreements with World Bank on bird flu fighting and soil preservation

Moldova signed on Friday, June 16, with the World Bank (WB) two new agreements, in the area of bird flu fighting and soil preservation, amounting to 13.1 million USD. The Agreements were signed by the country director of the World Bank for Belarus, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, Paul Bermingham, on behalf of the International Development Association (IDA), also by the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Moldova, Mihai Pop and by the director general of the state agency “Moldsilva”, Anatolie Popusoi. According to the coordinator of the bird flu fighting project, Anatol Gobjila, this is a global initiative because Moldova, as well as other South Eastern-European countries is prone to an increased risk of bird flu appearance. According to the quoted source, the project aims at human and veterinary health areas in the case of pandemics appearance, monitoring the epidemiological situation, disease diagnostics, scarification of birds, supervising foci, as well as informing the public about the risks of the bird flu and protection measures. The total cost of this project amounts to 10.6 million USD. The financing rate of WB is of 8 million USD, of which a half is offered as grant, and another half – as credit. The government of Japan contributes with a financing of 2.6 million USD. The soil conservation project represents a extending of a similar project applied on an area of 15 thousand hectares and is implemented within the Frame-Convention of UN on climate changing, signed by Moldova. According to the project, 6 thousand hectares of natural woods will be rehabilitated, maintained and administrated. The project will contribute to a long-term ecological durability of the Republic of Moldova and to the efforts regarding the reduction of climate changing processes on world scale. Within the project, BioCarbon Fund offers a total financing of about 2.5 million USD. The project will be implemented by the state Agency “Moldsilva”, which is responsible of creating and maintaining the wood plantations. BioCarbon Fund represents a public/private initiative administrated by the World Bank.