EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: Romania’s environment minister signs first afforestation contract

Romania’s environment minister Tánczos Barna signed on March 23 the first afforestation contract financed by the EU-backed National Recovery and Resilience Facility (PNRR). With a budget of RON 6 million, roughly 83 hectares of black locust and oak forests will be planted on agricultural land in Scornicești, Olt county, starting this spring.

“This means that we will remove more than 10,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere within 20 years, and at the same time, the owners will benefit from an annual subsidy of EUR 456 per hectare from the Environment Ministry during these years,” the minister said in a Facebook post.

Quoted in a post of the Ministry of Environment, Tánczos Barna said requests for several thousand hectares are currently under analysis. “I am optimistic that we will achieve our goals and that, at the end of 2026, Romania will benefit from 56,000 hectares of new forest,” he added.

This PNRR measure has a budget of EUR 730 million. It aims to create 56,000 ha of new forests and areas with forest vegetation in areas vulnerable to climate change, at least 90 new and renovated operational nurseries, as well as new areas of urban forests.

(Photo source: Facebook/Tanczos Barna)