Brasov, Romania (April 8, 2019) – Today, in a press conference held in Brasov next to the Conference of EU Nature Directors, the forest lawyer of Agent Green announced the launch of complaints against the Romanian government due to strong evidence of legal breaches of EU legislation in relation to the ongoing logging disaster in Romania’s forests. The complaints criticise systemic failures by Romania: Forest management plans including logging permissions within Natura 2000 sites have been approved before any environmental checks and public consultations were pursued. The formal complaint will be submitted to the European Commission and the Aarhus Compliance Committee.

The press conference took place at the same venue where EU 28 biodiversity directors met during the Romanian presidency of the EU. The officials were welcomed with protest banners by Agent Green activists and invited to watch filmed evidence of recent destruction of EU protected Natura 2000 sites. The footage contradicts the claim of the Romanian Government that all laws and regulations are adhered to in Romania’s forests A broadcast on Facebook exposed giant clear-cuts stretching over whole mountain slopes in the Fagaras Mountains Natura 2000 site and was shown to journalist and officials attending the EU conference.

Dezastrul din Munții Făgăraș from AGENT GREEN on Vimeo.

„The Romanian government enforced the forestry management plans within Natura 2000 sites before performing Strategic Environmental Assessments and the Appropriate Assessments as required by European legislation, and before the approval Order of the environmental minister was issued. The enforcement of the forest management plans before the environmental evaluation even started also breaches the Aarhus Convention, because public consultation must be realised before any decision was made, not after the plan was already enforced. We urge the EU Commission and the Aarhus Compliance Committee to turn this into a quick and hard infringement against Romania to halt the progressing large scale logging in many of Europe’s most valuable natural and virgin forests within Natura 2000 sites”, said Catalina Radulescu, Romanian lawyer partnering with Agent Green.

Romania hosts the largest natural and virgin forest heritage within the temperate climate zone of the EU. Several hundreds of thousands of hectares of these high conservation value forests are located within Natura 2000 sites, but lack proper protection. Thus, Agent Green and the Germany based EuroNatur Foundation are collaborating to document the systemic failure of the Romanian government to ensure proper implementation of the Natura 2000 protected areas network.
However, the Romanian government has denied access to relevant environmental information, meaning NGOs have not been able to give hard and detailed proof for the systemic implementation errors, which are clearly identifiable in many of Romania’s Natura 2000 sites. For this reason, no formal complaint for breaches of Natura 2000 has yet been filed with the European Commission.

„The destruction in the old-growth and virgin forests is clearly visible on satellite images and on the ground. In order to be able to file a complaint there is the need to provide documented evidence that breaches of Nature Directives are intentional and ongoing. But the Romanian government restricts access to relevant environmental information that should have been made available publicly. The Romanian Justice backs up this behaviour. So we are currently running 32 trials just to get access to the forest management plans. Having access to this documents is key to check consistency of forest management plans with the Natura 2000 management regimes to preserve listed habitats and species. Since the Justice ruled in some of the cases to keep this information secret we have no other choice but to escalate this case with the Aarhus Compliance Committee for violation of both access to information and public consultation pillars. We are confident that Aarhus will counter and correct the Romanian judiciary”, said Gabriel Paun from Agent Green.

Raising the Alarm for Romanian Forests from AGENT GREEN on Vimeo.