The afforestation data comes from reports by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). They measure the total forest area of each country in hectares, and analysts have combined these figures with population estimates for 2025 to determine the forest area per capita.
The world’s forests are unevenly distributed: countries like Canada and Russia have hundreds of millions of hectares of forest land. But on a per capita basis, these countries are not the world leaders.
Guyana ranks first, with 23 hectares per capita. Suriname is second with 22.3 hectares. In third place is Gabon with 10.2 hectares.
Then follow Canada (8.9 ha), Central African Republic (8.2 ha), Russia (5.7 ha), Botswana with the same indicator, Australia (4.8 ha), Bolivia (4.4 ha) and Finland (4 ha).
Rounding out the list of countries with 0 ha are: Qatar, Oman, Egypt and Nauru.
Our neighbors have a similar situation with Moldova: in Romania there are 0.4 hectares of forests per inhabitant, in Ukraine – 0.3 hectares. They, too, do not reach the world average level.
Currently, the area of forests in our country is 11% of the country’s territory, while the average level of afforestation in the EU is 37.7%.
In Moldova, an ambitious program was launched in 2023 to plant 145 thousand hectares of forest within 10 years (until 2032). During the first two years, more than 11 thousand hectares of land were planted with trees. The government allocated 300 million lei for this purpose.
In September 2024, the government signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank to allocate 200 million euros to extend the program. The main goal of this agreement is to plant 63 thousand hectares of forest over the next four years.
However, against the backdrop of the energy crisis and high fuel prices, there is a parallel process of illegal deforestation: people are doing everything to heat their homes.
Last winter, hundreds of cases of illegal logging were detected in many areas across the country. The fine for cutting down 5 trees increased from 477 lei to 4775 lei, but even this does not stop people.
Time will show who will win in this fight for clean air.
