Albania is the only country in Europe that is cutting more trees than it is planting. Numbers published by the European Environment Agency show that in the year 2010, the last year for which there are any official data, Albania cut 5.5 times more forest than that it planted.
Not only is Albania the only country with netto deforestation, deforestation has also significantly increased since 1990, from 2.3 times in 1990 to 3.0 times in 2000 and 5.5 times in 2010.
The rest of Europe systematically remains under about 80%, which means that 20% more trees are planted than cut.
In 2015, the Council of Ministers, in response to the deforestation, approved a 10-year moratorium, starting from February 2016. According to this moratorium, cutting, using, and trading forests is prohibited, except for providing citizens with firewood. The government is also supposed to start replanting the forests.
Meanwhile, forest fires are wreaking havoc in many forested areas of Albania.
