Locations
A large-scale planting event was conducted on 21 April 2018, in Copceac village, Stefan Voda district. Over 400 volunteers from all over the country and the respective community have participated in planting a forest protection belt on a degraded and eroded land field of 14 ha.
The planting event was attended by its organizers – UNDP Moldova “Biodiversity Conservation” Project, Consolidated Programme Implementation Unit of IFAD, “We plant good deeds” Project, Copceac Municipality, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment – so as volunteers from the community and the entire country, representatives of various environment-friendly commercial companies.
The Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Liviu Volconovici, said: “Unfortunately, forests cover a little bit over 11% of Moldova’s area, while in European countries forests account for almost 45% of the area. That is why we are committed to value the potential of existing natural forests, stop forests’ degradation, foster efforts of conservation, regeneration and reconstruction of forestry ecosystems by improving legislation and efficiently managing forestry resources.”
According to UNDP Programme Specialist, Inga Podoroghin, the planting exercise from Copceac was a symbolic action meant to consolidate civic spirit and contribute to solving local environmental problems: "Thus, we save 14 ha of land from desertification, expand forests’ area and strengthen the local ecosystem, being involved in global efforts of mitigation of climate change".
At his turn, the mayor of Copceac, Vasile Tantari, mentioned: “The projects that we accessed are of real help for us. We have already rehabilitated over 60 ha of land fields and soils started to get recovered. We have accessed funds for another 10 ha of land fields. I am so glad that people from the locality were involved in planting and are exposed to environment-friendly information, becoming more careful and sensitive towards our patrimony”.
Copceac village, Stefan Voda district is one of the pilot localities of the UNDP Moldova “Biodiversity Conservation” Project. The initiative is implemented during 2015-2019 and is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). To this stage, the project has supported Copceac village in planting 25 ha of grassland and 36 ha of forest protection belts.
