BREST, 2 March (BelTA) – Plans are in place to reforest 5,000 hectares in Brest Oblast in 2021, Director General of the Brest State Industrial Forestry Association Aleksei Prokopov said during the meeting of the agency on 2 March, BelTA has learned.
More than 5,000 hectares of land was reforested in 2020. Local nurseries grew 40 million seedlings, including 2.7 million units of planting material with root balls. Plans are in place to reforest as much land as last year. The most popular tree species are young pines, spruces, oaks, ashes, and birches.
“I am sure that Brest Oblast will meet the target. On my way to Brest, I visited a seedling nursery in Ivatsevichi to assess their preparedness to the spring season. The nursery has produced enough planting material,” First Deputy Forestry Minister Valentin Shatravko said. He added that forestry enterprises received new cultivators, tractors, and harrows in the run-up to the spring season.
Forestry enterprises of Brest Oblast not only fully satisfy the local demand for planting material, but also supply it to other parts of Belarus and abroad. Last year, seedling nurseries earned Br192,000, more than in 2019. “Russia is our main export market. However, we have faced new difficulties, as Russia adopted new laws and introduced zoning. Our planting material can be used within the radius of 200-400km. This is why we have offered a new service: we get seeds from Russia and conclude long-term contracts for growing planting material here. We have found a way to handle this situation,” Aleksei Prokopov noted.
