Vasluiul is one of the poorest counties in the forest! The 2024 afforestation program is 460 hectares

by Dănuț CIOBANU

Vaslui foresters have for this year a program of 460 hectares of natural and artificial regeneration of the forest. Depending on the temperatures, the seedling planting campaign starts much earlier. Unfortunately, Vaslui county is among the 13 counties in Romania that have a forestation percentage of less than 15%.

Every year, between March 15 and April 15, foresters organize the tree planting month. For the year 2024, the Vaslui Forestry Directorate (DS) has a program of 400 hectares of natural forest regeneration and 60 hectares of artificial regeneration.

“In the spring we had a 30-hectare afforestation program, and the remaining 30 hectares will be done in the autumn season. The areas are wooded in spring and autumn. Depending on the temperatures, we start the seedling planting campaign much earlier”, said Cătălin Idriceanu, director of DS Vaslui.

According to INS Data from 2019, Vaslui county is among the 13 counties that have a forestation percentage of less than 15% (Timiș 12%, Dolj 10.9%, Olt 9.3%, Teleorman 4.6%, Giurgiu 10 ,4%, Calarasi 4.1%, Ialomița 5.5%, Constanta 4.9%, Tulcea 11%, Brăila 5.2%, Galați 7.9%, Vaslui 13.3, Botosani 11.2%).

The afforestation and reforestation program is the most important tool that actively contributes to the fight against climate change. It is absolutely necessary to increase the area occupied by forest vegetation, mainly, for the rehabilitation of some areas strongly affected by surface and wind erosion phenomena, as a result of the reduction below the acceptable limits of the area occupied by forest vegetation.

Increasing the areas of land covered with forest vegetation contributes significantly to reducing the effect of climate change, but also to adapting to it, by increasing the long-term carbon storage in forest structures and balancing the national balance of greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2023, the Vaslui Environmental Protection Agency (APM) issued regulatory documents for 21 afforestation projects, and in January 2024, 7 projects were in the regulatory procedure.

A number of 17 projects among those from 2023, with application in Vaslui county on 187.11 ha and with a total eligible value of 14,056,496.88 lei have already been approved and can be found among the 122 projects in the amount of 84,300,572 .07 lei in the Intermediate list of projects selected within the call PNRR/2022/C2/I.1.A on 16 01.2024 – “Support for investments in new areas occupied by forests”