Setback in the afforestation of new forests in 2023 and 2024

If by 2023 the relative share of forested land area had been increasing and in 2023 reached 92 percent of the total forest area in Bulgaria, then in 2024 this growth stops. And this is explained by the increasingly weaker afforestation with new forests that the state managed to carry out in the period from 2021 to 2024. This is shown by the data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on afforestation in the country, recently announced by the institution. Evidence of this is the statistics on forest activities for soil preparation and new afforestation carried out over the four years under review, which shows a serious decline in areas. In 2021 and 2022, the state allocated serious funds. And in the first year of afforestation, a total of 15,080 decares were prepared for future forests. The same was true in 2022, when the area increased to 24,200 decares. However, in 2023, the decares prepared for afforestation decreased to 17,430 decares, to almost halve in 2024 – to just ...