{"id":372462,"date":"2022-05-19T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=372462"},"modified":"2022-05-19T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T04:30:00","slug":"tree-nurseries-in-romania-aim-to-offset-the-impact-of-logging-and-deforestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/tree-nurseries-in-romania-aim-to-offset-the-impact-of-logging-and-deforestation\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree nurseries in Romania aim to offset the impact of logging and deforestation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Read more about the countries in this project<\/span><\/a><\/div>
More about Romania<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Walking into a virgin forest is a privilege nowadays. Hearing the bird sing, bugs buzzing around and seeing edible mushrooms and wild berries on every step of the way. Due to the extensive amount of illegal logging and deforestation actions, Romania is gradually losing its precious forests. The government is taking actions however the pace might be too slow. Plant\u0103m fapte bune \u00een Rom\u00e2nia (PFBRo) is a group of enthusiastic people working on planting young forests to try to balance out the loss accumulated over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathing mountainside<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unlike other sectors, where carbon makes a one-way trip to the atmosphere, forests act as a two-way highway, absorbing CO2 when standing or regrowing and releasing it when cleared or degraded. Worldwide forests absorb twice as much CO2, then they release every year. Therefore, their importance is unquestionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Figure<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the last 3 decades the deforestation and afforestation actions were side by side shaping the landscape of Romania. Unfortunately, the deforestation and illegal logging actions were causing 500.000 hectares of loss from the protected forests. The government is very well aware of this issue and takes the necessary steps to regain the forest ecosystem which is thought to be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/div><\/div>
Fighting forest dieback: Small forest – huge role model<\/div>
The forests around the globe are dwindling. One of the main reasons for this is forest clearance – and things are not getting any better.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Currently, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests is working on a new National Forest Strategy, that will take into consideration the relevant measures form EU Forest Strategy 2030 and other programmatic documents that were adopted in the last years across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Volunteers
Planting day with volunteers. @PFBRo.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot the money was the reason for decreasing the afforested area in the last years, but mainly the issues related with the property fragmentation, especially in the case of the agricultural lands that were targeted to be afforested,\u201d says Dr. Mihai Enescu, forest engineer at PFBRo. The other cause of the slow process is that the forestry system in Romania is rather focused on natural regeneration of the forests than on artificial way (i.e. by planting). By natural regeneration, the foresters are harvesting the forests step-by-step, making space for the naturally installed seedlings to develop and to form the new forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking illegal logging through an app<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the last 10 years, the public attention on forests increased, which is a very good thing!\u201d says Dr. Mihai Enescu. He believes that the public should address this topic knowing the difference between illegal logging, deforestation and legal clearcutting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deforestation, which represents the action of harvesting the trees, followed by changing the destination of the land, is now forbidden in Romania. Illegal logging is a \u201cphenomenon which still exists, but decreased,\u201d says Mihai Enescu. The large areas which were affected by illegal logging 15-20 years ago are well known by the authorities. In 2014 the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests launched a new wood tracking system, called SUMAL<\/a>, so that anybody could check if a wood transport is legal or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.000 hectare is afforested every year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The initiative of PFBRo is constantly motivated to make Romania greener for people to breath cleaner air. They work with volunteers and organize huge planting events<\/a>. Mihai describes them as a big family. \u201cThe community is the place full of joy, determination and desire to do good things,\u201d he says. Volunteers are often coming with their families, bringing children. \u201cThis is amazing, since we are aiming for family-joint education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mihai praises the workflow and the smooth teamwork. \u201cEvery step is very well planned, and every member of our team knows exactly what to do, starting from land identification, contracts and agreements that should be signed, collecting data needed for making the afforestation technical projects, preparing the seedlings, spades, gloves, water, food etc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor example, in order to plant in March-April, we are starting to prepare all that is needed starting from July-August previously year,\u201d he adds and highlights that in the last decade an area of about 10.000 hectares was afforested every year. \u201cOn average, we are planting 5.000 seedlings per hectare, that means around 50 million seedlings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n