Forest area in Moldova will be extended at the expense of degraded land. A regulation to this effect was approved today by the Government, referring to the government's communication and press relations office of the Executive.

The Act provides that unproductive land can be afforested, examples of which are land erosion advanced affected by active landslides, collapses or landslides, or saturated sandy soils and polluted with chemicals and petroleum.

The document establishes that the degraded isolated land for afforestation must have a minimum area of 5 hectares, while the adjacent forest land not less than 0.25 ha. Private land ownership of new woodland will be kept or forwarded to state ownership.

The assortment of trees and shrubs for afforestation of degraded lands will be chosen based on their ability to withstand soil and planted the benefits they can bring to decrease the erosion of the land. Priority will be given to native species of productivity and high resistance.

Afforestation work will be financed from the state budget, the budgets of administrative-territorial units and external sources.

Currently, the forest of the Republic of Moldova has a total area of 419 100 ha and constitutes 12.7% of the country, reports Moldpres.md .