In Moldova, where forests cover just over 11 percent of the territory, a large-scale planting will begin this autumn: more than 33 million saplings across 3 000 hectares. The work is part of the National Programme for Forest Expansion and Restoration. The first stage of the campaign "Generation of the Forest — Autumn 2026" will take place on 14 November in the village of Pogănești, Hîncești district: poplars will be planted on 40 hectares in the Prut floodplain. The Minister of the Environment, Gheorghe Hajder, stated that the country has never seen such a pace of tree planting.
The programme is designed for the years 2023–2032 and provides for the planting and restoration of about 145 thousand hectares of forest. The goal is to raise forest cover from the current roughly 12 percent to 17. More than 24 thousand hectares of new forest have already been created, but the journey is far from over. For comparison: according to Eurostat, forests cover about 39 percent of the European Union's territory, so the gap remains very large. The minister acknowledges that sapling survival in some areas has been low due to drought, soil degradation and negligence. That is why the programme's main question is not how many trees are planted, but how many will survive to adulthood.
Why does this matter? Moldova has something to restore. According to a United Nations assessment, after the felling of protective forest belts around fields in the 1990s, a quarter of the country's territory and 40 percent of agricultural land became exposed to wind and water erosion. Trees hold soil on slopes, help recharge groundwater, mitigate floods and trap sediment. Forest belts also protect fields from dry winds and strong winds, which increasingly hit farmers, while woodland patches support pollinators — bees, butterflies and birds — without which full-fledged agriculture is impossible.
This season the environmental campaign is combined with charity under the hashtag #GenerațiaPădurii. Participants who come to plant trees in Pogănești can bring warm clothing for people of all ages, including newborns. The clothes will be collected at a stand of the CONCORDIA organization and distributed through its 36 centres across the country. Those who cannot come to the site can hand in items at CONCORDIA centres in other districts, including the Chișinău depot on Alba-Iulia Street, 175 A. Volunteers who come on their own are asked to register in advance via an online form.
The saplings are grown in specialised nurseries, with species selected to suit local conditions. Poplars on riverbanks grow quickly, strengthen slopes and create green corridors along water bodies, but this method also has a downside: without care and protection from illegal logging, young plantings rarely survive to maturity. The experience of past years shows how important this is. In the village of Mihailovca, Cimișlia district, where planting took place last year, according to the ministry, more than 80 percent of the saplings took root. However, elsewhere the picture is worse, and illegal felling continues to cause damage: it was reported that dozens of oaks were cut down in the Baiuș forestry fund, and the damage exceeded 203 thousand lei.
There is criticism too. Blogger Vlad Bilețchi stated that more than 200 million lei have already been spent on such events, while the results are unsatisfactory, and predicted that a significant share of the plantings will die. This is his assessment, not officially confirmed, but it highlights the main risk: without transparent monitoring of survival and spending, trust in the campaign will rest only on the figures in reports. All the more important, then, that according to the World Bank, forest restoration and care can provide work for thousands of rural residents, and within the programme the talk is of almost 14 thousand jobs.
Every sapling planted is a contribution to making Moldova greener and more resilient to climate challenges, but the real result will only be visible when the young trees survive and the felled forests stop being restored more slowly than they are lost.
