Experts have
\nrepeatedly voiced concern about the desertification process, which is presently
\ngaining momentum in Romania’s southern regions. Hundreds of hectares are
\nannually turning here into sand dunes and in the following 50 years the fertile
\nfarm land here could become, in a worst case scenario, completely barren.
\nScarce precipitations and the hot weather in the past years are among the
\ncauses of this process and according to experts, to prevent it, we need protection
\nforest curtains in many areas. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to representatives
\nof Greenpeace Romania, who have launched a petition for the reforestation of
\nRomania’s southern regions, we need green forest barriers to protect us from
\ndrought, flooding, storms and pollution. Greenpeace has cautioned that in the
\nfollowing 30 years over 40% of Romania’s territory will turn into a dryland
\naffecting over 11 million Romanians for whom drought is to become the new
\nnormal. Here is more from forest and wildlife
\ncampaigner Ciprian Galusca<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Cipria Galusca: The
\necosystems we have in the southern plains are scarce; we don’t actually have forests
\nor other types of vegetation here except for crops. As few as they are, these frail
\necosystems are soon going to suffer from the lack of precipitations and hot
\nweather. This mixture of hot weather and scarce raining has a devastating
\neffect, creating drought, drylands, improper conditions for life and will
\neventually take its toll on the human communities in the region as well. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Weathermen issued no less than 132 red
\nwarnings for hot weather last summer, the highest number in history. And we
\nactually have little time to prepare a response. It is not enough to protect
\nthe forests we still have in the mountains, which have constantly been plagued
\nby illegal logging in the past years. What we need is a national network of
\nforests to protect cities, the most vulnerable communities and farmland, the
\nGreenpeace campaigners have explained.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ciprian Galusca: 60% of the precipitations that
\nwe have in a certain area comes from big airwaves, water that evaporates from oceans
\nand seas, the world climate in short. But we owe 40% of the precipitation to the
\nvegetation in a certain area or the lack thereof. Things are quite clear and
\nsimple here; without forests we cannot keep water into the soil, so forests are
\nextremely important in our attempt to create and keep the right humidity
\nvegetation needs to survive. For this reason, we believe that forests in Romania’s
\nplain areas are of crucial importance in the process of preventing
\ndesertification. However, the idea of forest curtains in these dry areas is not
\na Greenpeace idea. This project is older; it was first presented and
\nimplemented in Romania between the two world wars after authorities had figured
\nout that the country’s south was to be exposed to wind and sun and that crops
\nand communities here needed protection. Unfortunately, the communist authorities
\nthat followed had a different agricultural policy and cut down the trees, a
\nsituation that carried on in the 1990s, and we eventually ended up with no
\nforest curtains in Romania’s southern regions. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The climate
\nchange is already upon us with a vengeance and in the absence of forests,
\nRomania’s southern plains are drying up. In the past decade alone, Romania paid
\n330 million euros in damages to the farmers affected by drought, which is not a
\nsolution either for the state or their welfare, as Ciprian Galusca pointed out.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Last year, wells
\nin villages dried up right at the beginning of summer and in late August we
\nstarted counting the dry lakes. Only 6% of Romania’s plains benefit from shady
\nareas, while the country’s major cities are heavily affected by succeeding heat
\nwaves and pollution. It is high time we reconstruct the natural barrier offered
\nby forests, a solution lost to ignorance, greed and mismanagement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Through the
\npetition that we mentioned before, Greenpeace wants to put pressure on politicians
\nso that they may take the right measures for the reforestation of the national
\nnetwork of these green barriers. The organisation has called on people to sign
\nthe petition to support this endeavor, which will allow for the creation of a
\nworking group to issue the needed legislation by the end of the year. Funds aren’t
\nscarce in this area because the European Union boasts a series of ambitious
\nenvironment programmes. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greenpeace Romania has launched a petition for the reforestation of the country’s southern regions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":93016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44315],"tags":[44423,44424,35584,35831,44425,29220],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-153383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-planet","tag-barren","tag-dryland","tag-forests","tag-greenpeace","tag-hot","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n