Romania’s forest areas grew in 2023 due to reforestation

The area of forests in Romania increased by 3,159 hectares last year, totaling 6.45 million hectares, while the volume of harvested timber decreased by 5.3%, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

At the same time, the national forest fund increased by 2,284 hectares, reaching 6.6 million hectares. This increase is mainly due to the reforestation of pastures and the inclusion of degraded and unforested lands into the forest fund, as mandated by law.

Forest areas represent 97.6% of the national forest fund at the moment.

The largest volume of timber was harvested in the North-East development region (28% of the total), followed by the Center region (23.3%), and to a lesser extent in the West (12.5%), North-West (12.0%), South-Muntenia (9.6%), South-West Oltenia (7.5%), South-East (6.7%), and Bucharest-Ilfov (0.4%) regions, according to the official statistics cited by Ziarul Financiar.

The largest areas where forest regeneration work was carried out were in the North-East development region (21.3% of the total regenerated area), South-East (17.6%), and Center (16.5%), followed by the North-West (11.6%), South-Muntenia (11.5%), West (11.3%), South-West Oltenia (9.6%), and Bucharest-Ilfov (0.6%) regions.

Last month, the Romanian Senate passed the new Forestry Code that includes, among others, amendments to safeguard the forests in Ilfov County. With only 16% wooded area, Ilfov is considered an "area with a deficit of forest vegetation."

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