Moldsilva will receive 64.25 million lei from the Government's Intervention Fund to speed up timber harvest and maintain firewood prices.
The relevant decision was taken by the Commission for Emergencies in the context of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, in order to ensure a transparent mechanism of firewood sale to the population and monitoring of this process. The Ministry of Environment will develop, approve and publish an action plan on firewood provision for the winter season 2022-2023, which will be obligatory for the competent central and local authorities. It is stipulated that the Ministry of Environment will be allocated 64.25 million lei from the Government's Intervention Fund for Moldsilva Agency to speed up timber harvest and prevent increase of prices of firewood for population during the winter period 2022-2023. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for monitoring the money and the implementation of the Emergencies Commission’s decision. Earlier, the general secretary of the government Dumitru Udrea said that the Cabinet of Ministers will help the population in the heating season 2022-2023 to buy firewood at a price similar to that of last year. According to him, in order not to increase the price of wood, the authorities will pay subsidies to Moldsilva agency in the amount of over 64 million lei and people will be able to buy wood directly from the forestry, without intermediaries. The wood will not be sold to economic agents. This year, the sale price of hardwoods will range from 550 to 875 lei per warehouse meters. The prices for soft wood will range from 350 to 475 lei per cubic meter. Dumitru Udrea said the government will provide access to firewood for 658,000 households in the country who use traditional wood stoves as the main source of heating at home. Under the first part of the sale, in October-November, each household belonging to a socially vulnerable group or representing a family that heats only with firewood will be able to buy up to 3 warehouse meters of firewood at a limited price. Under the second tranche, from December 2022 to January 2023, Moldsilva will provide additional wood depending on climatic conditions and available reserves. Deliveries of timber from the forestry to people's homes must be made only during daylight hours, and transporters must have tax invoices in the name of the homeowners who bought the timber, indicating the volume transported. Fines for illegal logging will also be increased. Consumers annually use about 1 million storages of wood during the cold season. In order to ensure public access to firewood this year, Moldsilva agency will provide about 800 thousand warehouse meters of the required volume. To this end, the government decided that the forestry work in the national forest fund, scheduled for spring 2023, will be carried out earlier. From the end of September, the volume of firewood available for sale will be displayed weekly by the Moldsilva agency on the official websites of the forestry agencies. In the near future, the government will additionally launch a green line dedicated to informing the public about the availability of timber. Citizens will be able to use the green line to notify the authorities about illegal logging or violations in the timber distribution process. // 12.08.2022 - InfoMarket.
