Some 29% of Romania’s territory is forested and the Romanian authorities have made efforts to increase this area, scientific director of “Marin Drăcea” National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry of Romania Ovidiu Badea stated in a debate  hosted by IPN News Agency. According to him, the afforestation process in Romania is slow due to the lack of funding and extreme weather conditions.

Romanian academician Ovidiu Badea explained that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, whose objective is to ensure the country’s forested area comes closer to the European average, is under implementation in Romania. According to the forestry expert, increasing the degree of afforestation in the eastern area that is frequently affected by drought is a priority in Romania.

“Romania has 29% of the country’s surface covered with forests. The afforestation process is quite slow, below average. Projects exist, but this process goes slowly due to funding and the lack of saplings, but there are also harsh weather conditions and the saplings die. The European average is 33-34%. In Romania, the success of afforestation is quite cumbersome. We have to switch to planting saplings with protected roots that can resist drought, because the target is the eastern region of the country, which has been greatly affected by drought,” said the scientific director of “Marin Drăcea” National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry.

According to the Romanian academician, Romsilva manages to comply with the afforestation calendar plan, but private forest owners face big difficulties. They have neither the necessary funds for afforestation nor specialists.

“In Romania, forest owners possess over 49% of the forest sector. Both private and state forests must be subject to the same forestry regime. Private owners should not be favored too much, but we must take care of them so that they can benefit from their property. Specialists are needed. Efforts are being made both by the Institute and by universities, the most important being those in Brasov and Suceava, to train specialists for the forest code,” said Ovidiu Badea.

The public debate entitled “Moldovan-Romanian cooperation in forestry” was the seventeenth installment of the project “Double integration through cooperation and information. Continuity”, which is supported by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova of the Government of Romania.