  Romania's forest cover is at this time below, but quite close to the European
average. Despite that, recent forestry activities tend to be more oriented
towards forest exploitation and not to increase the national forested area. The
general public perception is that afforestation activities are limited only to
NGO's projects and media actions and numerous reports and statements made by
some of these organizations are rather sensational and confusing. This paper
tries to cast more light on this controversial issue, presenting accurate data
and considering the whole context of afforestation-from the history of
afforestation activities in Romania to the recent statements and reports
submitted by the government agencies involved in these particular issues. The
necessity and opportunity of afforestation is also substantiated from the
perspective of reintroduction into production of marginal and degraded land. An
analysis of the situation of funding through the National Rural Development
Programme (2007-2013) measures is performed and possible future directions
regarding afforestation programmes are discussed.

Populations and Evolution