Forestation campaign kicks off in Romania, planting 2,500 forests set as goal

Environment Ministry has launched a national forestation campaign on Friday, under the patronage of President Iohannis. The campaign, entitled “A forest the size of a country” aims at planting 53 million seedlings this year, planting a total of 2,500 forests from scratch and extending 7,000 young forests.

President Klau Iohannis, PM Ludovic Orban, Finance minister Florin Citu and Environment minister Costel Alexe have joined an event to plant some oak trees at Uliesti at Gaesti forest ground in Dambovita county.

“We have to be aware that the climate issue is a very serious one, while studies show that the most efficient measure to counter the climate change is planting forests”, said the Romanian head of state.

“On one hand, we must have protection, removing illegal logging, and on the other hand we need to start massive woods planting. This is what I want for Romania and for the green gold in Romania“, Iohannis added.

He urged the PM to find new tools to protect forests in Romania, arguing that “it is unacceptable to still have massive illegal logging in the 21st century” and that woodcutting must be done “in an organised and legal manner”.

Iohannis reminded that Romania is among the fewest countries that still has virgin forests, underlining that preserving and protecting these areas is a “must-have”.

In his turn, the Environment minister announced that the plan for this year is to plant 53 million seedlings in 13,000 forest yards so that we can have “2,500 woods from scratch”.

Moreover, he said forest curtains will be planted on the Bucharest-Constant highway, while planting will also start on the gritty fields in Dabuleni, Dolj county.