Date of entry : 03/04/2019
Date of last edition : 19/11/2020
In Romania, the official statements recognize the importance of afforestation and one important objective of the National Afforestation Programme (2004) and the Forest Code (2008) was the afforestation of 2 million hectares of degraded lands. Moreover, the Law no. 100 /2010 regarding the afforestation of degraded lands was a new reinforcement of that ambitious objective, but the new versions of the National Afforestation Programme from 2010 and 2013 altered successively the target from 2 million hectares to 422 thousand hectares, respectively to 229 thousand hectares.
Today, the Romanian forest covers 6.5 million hectares (INS, 2013) but after 1990 the state was no longer the sole landowner and manager. Still, the state represents, with nearly 50% of the forest, the most important landowner and the legal state-owned entity, RNP - National Forestry Administration, represents the largest administrator of Romanian forest.
It is quite obvious that investments in afforestation do not seem very attractive due to the considerable time gap between investments and benefits, in this particular field. However, considering the important role of forests in the environmental and social paradigm as well in the mitigation of climate change, the state should play a more significant role. In the absence of private investors, the state should be more active and should encourage afforestation by different funding mechanisms or attractive tax incentives.
The UE funding scheme is ineffective without an adequate support from the state. We can mention the Mediterranean states (Spain, Italy or Portugal) which have greatly benefited from the UE funds (Zanchi et al, 2007). Their outcomes regarding afforestation were as solid as their afforestation policies (Palaghianu & Clinovschi, 2007).
Romania
The new PNDR 2014-2020, granted only 300 million euros from the total 8 billion euros (excluding the 10 billion euros for direct payments) for forestry measures. The Measure 8.1 for afforestation has a budget of 105 million euros and doubles the standard costs for the afforestation activities, in order to boost the absorption rate of funds for this particular field.
