7 projects

Accor reforests Transylvania with schools in Romania

Romania has a large forest to preserve See gallery

News

April 2, 2009

The M.E.T. NGO planted more than 5,000 trees

in the Sibiu-Sighisoara region (Transylvania). More than 200 pupils helped the NGO plant trees in a 5-hectare field.(...)

Progress report

One program completed in April: "One Forest for One School", which consists of planting one 25-acre forest.

Accor's commitment

The project is funded from the savings achieved in hotels in Northern Europe: every time a towel is re-used by a customer, the hotels pay 50% of the cleaning charge saved, to the project in Romania.

The project

In partnership with the NGO Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET), Accor is linking up with schools for the planting and protection of forests in the Sibiu – Sighisoara region of Transylvania.

Massive deforestation in the region has had dramatic consequences. For one, the floods of 1998, 1999 and 2005 had disproportionate knock-on effects due to the bare terrain, causing landslides for example. For another, Transylvania's very rich biodiversity is threatened: scientists estimate that ecosystems need at least 50% forest cover to be able to renew themselves, whereas cover has dropped to less than 35%.

The planting

The trees planted come partly from a MET nursery based in Sighisoara, which has 7,000 seedlings in stock. The rest will be purchased from outdoor nurseries.

Planting will take place twice a year, in April/May and again in September/October. The trees planted will be mostly oaks, but the NGO botanist has also selected several other species characteristic of the region.

The local benefits

The rehabilitation of the forest cover will help reduce debris from natural catastrophes such as floods and drought, as well as pollution from industrial activities.

The project also aims to raise awareness among students about the key role of forests. Two programs will be run in 2009 to do this: "One Forest for One School", which aims to plant and monitor a 25-acre forest with 200 students from a school in Micasasa; "One Oak Tree for One Student", which aims to plant trees in the Breite nature reserve with 500 students from schools in Sighisoara.

Our NGO partner in Romania is The Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET)

The Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET)

MET is a foundation specialized in running development projects with rural communities in Transylvania, Romania.

Its objectives are the conservation and restoration of Romania's natural and cultural heritage. To this end the foundation mounts projects that involve and raise awareness among the general public, and among schools in particular.

Photo gallery

Romania has a large forest to preserve enlarge

Oaks are among the typical trees of the country enlarge

MET owns an outdoor tree nursery with 7,000 seedlings in stock enlarge

A first planting, carried out by local students, occurred in April enlarge

Students from Dora high school are studying the planting site enlarge

Students planting oaks in April enlarge

Testimonials

Forest for each School...

March 10th 2009 – Yesterday we had the first public activity as part of the "Forest for each School" project in Romania. Our landscape specialist, Kinga Ollerer, together with biology teacher Dora Holban organised a workshop with 30 students and 3 teachers, at the Axente Sever High School in Medias, where they tried to design the future plantation, taking into account its position, area, exposition, selection of species and other criteria. The students had some fund and learnt quite a lot of new things.
There is a lot of enthusiasm from schools for this project and we already have more requests for replication than we can fulfill at the moment. Let's hope hotel visitors will take this idea to heart and help create lots of savings!