The south of Romania could end up being completely desertified in about half a decade, the Minister of the Environment warned in a broadcast on europafm.ro.
The Southern area of Romania is in danger
Mircea Fechet, the Minister of the Environment, emphasizes that, in order to stop this process, afforestation campaigns are needed in the counties in the south of the country, where almost 1000 hectares of arable land are lost annually.
“We are in very great danger. From the discussions I had with colleagues from ANM, in the absence of immediate measures, in 50 years the south of Romania will be completely desertified. Just as my colleagues from ANM say, in 20 years the climate of Romania will be very similar to the climate of Greece“, declared Mircea Fechet, the Minister of the Environment.
Fechet claims that measures such as massive afforestation campaigns are necessary, so as to avoid such an extremely destructive phenomenon for agriculture and the Romanian economy.
“First, to stop desertification in the south – and we are losing 1000 hectares of arable land every year – we need to reforest. We will have to have massive afforestation campaigns in the Oltenia Sahara, as we, Mehedinți, Dolj call it. And I think that using money from the PNRR, which we already have at our disposal, would be an effective, tested first measure that will bear fruit“, added the Minister of the Environment.
In addition, approximately one third of Romania’s territory (approximately seven million hectares) and 40% of the agricultural area are at risk of becoming sand dunes. The most exposed regions are the southern Romanian Plain, Dobrogea and southern Moldova.
University professor Ioan Jelev, vice-president of the Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences and researcher, spoke to reporters “truth” a year ago about the desertification phenomenon of Romania. The specialist says that the phenomenon has taken on a serious dimension in the last 10 years, when there was only talk of the aridification of certain areas.
“Romania is located in an excessively continental climate zone, with prolonged pedological droughtsand the increase in the last 10 years of average annual temperatures by 0.2 – 0.6℃ and the decrease of precipitation by 10 – 15 millimeters, compared to the multiannual averages, reveals the clear trend of the intensification and expansion of the phenomena of desertification and land degradation, especially in the southern and eastern areas of the country”, explained professor Ioan Jelev. at that time.
