Moldova's Environmental Protection Inspectorate said on 20 October 2026 that it found 394 stumps at forestry canton no. 7 of the Vadul lui Vodă forest district, part of the Chișinău Forestry Enterprise. Inspectors say the trees were cut illegally and the remains were covered with soil and vegetation. Ecopresa reported the inspection after the agency. IPN confirmed the same figures. An inspector finding is not a court verdict.

The volume of timber listed as taken is 250.05 cubic metres. The wood itself was valued at 369,755 lei. Damage calculated for the cutting alone is 700,095 lei. Together, the loss reported to the state forest fund comes to 1,069,850 lei. Those are inspection estimates, not a sum imposed by a court.

The check was done by the directorate for forest fund, protected areas and green space. The inspectorate wrote that the file is to be handed to law-enforcement bodies so that people can be identified and held to account. “To be handed over” means that, at the time of the notice, no published indictment was on the table and nobody had been named guilty in a judgment.

IPN headlined “about 400 trees”. The figure from the ground remains 394 stumps, of several species. A rounded headline does not replace the number in the inspection record. Neither Ecopresa nor IPN names foresters, buyers or companies.

The Chișinău Forestry Enterprise runs the district. The fact that the cutting was found on its ground does not, by itself, convict the enterprise. Who cut, who covered the stumps and who moved the wood remain questions for the investigation.

The agency said it would keep up forestry checks and that such acts hit the natural heritage. That is a statement of enforcement policy, not a new law. Until law-enforcement bodies close the file, the damage of more than a million lei remains the inspectors’ calculation, not compensation collected.

Image: dittaeva, Dniester near Vadul lui Voda, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; the locality, not forestry canton no. 7.

Sources consulted: Tăieri ilegale de arbori la Întreprinderea pentru Silvicultură Chișinău: prejudiciu de peste un milion de lei - Ecopresa; Circa 400 de arbori, tăiați ilegal la Vadul lui Vodă. Prejudiciul depășește un milion de lei - IPN.