Management of the impact on soil in Republic of Moldova: Problems and solutions

Abstract

The great impact on soils in Republic of Moldova is represented by the non-ecological exploitation of agricultural land, non-sanitation of rural space, massive negligence of
population and local authorities, surveillance and control authorities of land resources. The most common form of impact on soils is erosion. Very rapid increase of the surfaces
affected by erosion is conditioned, in particular, by the non-compliance of environmental requirements to allocation and exploitation of agricultural land and by the actual
inefficient management of land resources. In the last two decades, there has been a significant reduction of ecological laboratories for soil quality evaluation, conditioned by liquidation of district and regional centres of plant protection. The State Ecological Inspectorate, which has the exclusive function of ecological damage evaluation, has very modest financial and human resources. As a result, despite the frequent cases of infringement of soil and land protection, because of very low evaluation capacity, most environmental damage in this area are not established and subject to compensation, and most land beneficiaries ignore normative of land and soil use and protection. Due to financial shortages in rural areas apply minimum rates of fines, which do not
reflect the real impact on the soil cover. The collected sums from the application of fines are significantly lower than the damage caused to the soils. Under the new Offences Code,
it was introduced the penalty for burning stubble, substantially increasing the payment discharge and the amounts of fines for unauthorized land use and for destruction of soil
fertile layer. However, there is no positive change in penalties for causing erosion, for falsifying and concealing information about the status of land. Most damage compensation actions are brought for burning stubble and for soil contamination, while compensation actions for damage caused by erosion and landslides are a major exception. Despite the existence of adequate methodology for evaluations of soil injury, their practical implementation is very superficially, what conditioned the illicit behaviour of land beneficiaries.