Petrol, the largest locally-owned fuel retailer in Bulgaria, will donate 100 000 leva to plant 300 000 saplings over 70.2 ha of forests that have burned down in in 2007 and 2008, Petrol executive director Svetoslav Yordanov told a news conference on September 5

The trees will be planted in autumn 2008 and spring 2009, Stoycho Byalkov from the State Forestry Agency (SFA) said. About 70 000 saplings will be planted around Sofia, while the other locations include 17 Bulgarian areas around Varna, Bourgas, Sliven, Berkovitsa and Montana. SFA representative Rossen Popsavov said that the planting would be in 16 forest farms of SFA, which represent about 10 per cent of SFA regional structures.

The bigger part of the money, 57 000 leva, will be spent on preparing the areas for forestation, while 43 000 leva will be spent on the planting itself. As Petrol employees will take part in it as well, the chosen locations are easily accessible from roads, Byalkov said.

SFA called on other companies and state institutions to donate money for forestation in Bulgaria, as the main goal of the state agency was to increase the number of forests in Bulgaria, for which it lacked money in its budget. Locations, where trees need to be planted include burned forests, lands threatened by erosion, abandoned farming areas, areas for biomass production and others.

For the first eight months of 2008, 3528 ha of forests have burned down in Bulgaira, compared with 42 934ha for the same period of last year, Popspasov said.