Besides being the poorest state in Europe, Moldova is also the most unclean country, with the smallest wooded areas, the scarcest fauna and the smallest quantities of fish in rivers. The poachers work in collusion with the law enforcement bodies that should actually penalize these and the number of hunters per capita in Moldova is the highest, acting Minister of Environment Valeriu Munteanu said in the program “Dialog” on Agro TV channel, IPN reports.

Munteanu stated that he recently signed an order by which industrial fishing in the Nistru and Prut is banned. So far the state provided licenses for industrial fishing that allowed fishing one tonne of fish annually in the Nistru or the Prut. Those who possessed such licenses reported quantities of up to one tonne, but they in fact caught hundreds of kilograms of fish daily.

“The rivers Prut and Nistru are the main sources of drinking water in our country. By the way, we are also the poorest county by the volume of underground waters. Two conditions should be met for the water in the two rivers to be good: there should be sand and fish. That’s why I signed an order that bans industrial fishing starting with next year,” stated the acting minister.

He noted that the banning of industrial fishing is a solution to remedy the situation. It’s easier to monitor the situation on the Prut because a relevant commission was set up in concert with the Romanian side there. As to the Nistru, they have to cooperate with the Ukrainian side in this regard, but the neighboring country has now more serious problems. However, things started to move on. “There is dictatorship in the Transnistrian region and this brings particular benefits. When several years ago they saw that the fauna was in a disastrous situation, they banned hunting completely and the situation improved there,” said Munteanu.

He also said that the European average of wooded areas is 30%. In Moldova this average is only 10%. For the first time this year, the Forest Agency “Moldsilva” was allocated 30 million lei for extending the forest area. “We have the largest number of hunters per capita. This year, we issued a new edition of the Red Book. It was established that the number of birds and animals that are on the verge of extinction has increased dramatically compared with 2004,” stated Munteanu.