Tag Archives: primary forests

Success: Cernișoara primary forest in Romania’s Domogled National Park finally strictly protected

May 19, 2021, , , , , , , , , , ,
After three years of protests and legal proceedings by Agent Green, the national park’s strictly protected natural forests were expanded. However, several very valuable forests are still without a protective shield …

Several important primary forests in the Cernisoara basin in the de facto unprotected buffer zone Domogled – Cerna Valley National Park and UNESCO world heritage site have now become strictly protected, three years after the Agent Green protests and after a series of investigations and trials at the supreme courts of Romania.

These forests of outstanding natural value, including most of the Radoteasa and Cărbunele valleys (except the plots degraded by aggressive logging until the date of the protest) are now listed with the new edition of the „National Catalog of Virgin Forests“.  This means that they are under a strict non intervention regime, equal to the neighboring UNESCO World Heritage site components parts and the core zone and the national park.

This success, unique in Romania comes both as a result of Agent Green’s protest in May 2018, and several lawsuits won by the organization in November 2019 against Romsilva and the Ministry of Environment at the Court of Appeal and the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

In the spectacular case of Agent Green against the Ministry of Environment and Romsilva, Baia de Aramă Forest District, the organization had suspended the cuts on an area of almost 20,000 hectares that overlap with Domogled National Park – Valea Cernei and Natura 2000 site North of Gorj West. The defendants appealed, which they lost and subsequently made an extraordinary appeal which they also lost by the final decision of the ICCJ.

In the meantime, Romsilva continued to extract secular trees from these areas until Agent Green repeatedly called on the Forest Guard to intervene. Shortly afterwards, the cuttings from Padeș, the neighboring state forest district on an area of 14,612.36 hectares, were also suspended by a decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal (in the case of Agent Green against Romsilva and the Ministry of Environment).

Unfortunately there are still important but unprotected old growth forest patches in Ivanu, Olanu, Balmosu valleys and Cerna Sat area, adjacent to the areas which came under the shield of the „Catalogue“ recently. Also in Baile Herculane and Mehadia forest district the situation is still unsatisfying, especially in Mehedinti Mts, where only very small little „islands“ of old growth forest were included in the „Catalog“ so far. Same accounts with the UNESCO World Heritage Component Part Coronini-Bedina, which is is a very wild and beautiful area with old-growth beech forests grown on limestone.

In a „Mission Report“ (following a field trip in 2019) published in March 2021 UNESCO and IUCN called for strict protection of all old growth / primary forests in the national park: “The mission concludes that the current management of the component parts’ buffer zones does not meet the requirements of the Operational Guidelines (OG) in a satisfactory way and may have negative effects on the integrity of the transboundary property. The current forest management should seek to better support the natural processes and be based on strengthening and expanding ancient and primeval beech forest ecosystems over time.“

In this report, UNESCO and IUCN urged Romania to “strictly protect all ancient and primeval beech forest ecosystems that have not been included in the property, in order to foster the long-term preservation of those exceptional ecosystems; priority should be given to those located in proximity of the components visited by the mission, to enhance connectivity.“

The whole national park is also designated as a EU Natura 2000 site, where protected habitats and species must not be „significantly deteriorated“. Removal of rare pristine ecosystems like primary and old growth forests by logging undoubtedly needs to be classified as a „significant deterioration“ of the important natural heritage of the EU.

In 2021, the park’s new management plan will be done. Agent Green and its partner organisation EuroNatur Foundation call on the Romanian government to ensure that the strictly protected core zone of this unique national park area will be extended to ensure safe conservation of all intact natural ecosystems (including all high biodiversity value forest stands) and to meet international IUCN standards (of at least 75% strict protection zone).

Since the new EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which was endorsed by all EU member states in 2020, aims to strictly protect all “primary and old-growth forests”, Romania is anyway obliged to map and protect these forests safely and comprehensively.

The enlargement of the strictly protected zone also needs to ensure that all three UNESCO World Heritage component parts sites, which are located within the boundaries of the national park, are connected to suffiently guarantee the ecological integrity. This needs to include initially degraded old growth forests as well and put them under non intervention management, as reommended by UNESCO / IUCN.

Protests against logging plans of Romsilva in Cernisoara area in 2018.
The wild Radoteasa valley in the forest district of Cernisoara was not included in the strict protection system of the national park until recently, and logging plans threatened these forests, identical to the forests of “outstanding universal value” on the adjacent UNESCO site.

 

International NGOs follow up on their call on Romanian President and Government: Protect Romania’s natural forest heritage

June 24, 2020, , , , , ,

Second open letter by International NGOs to Romanian President and Government – Natural Forest Heritage

24.06.2020

Dear Mr. President Iohannis,
dear Prime Minister Orban,
dear Minister Alexe,

we would like to address you on concern of a letter sent to you on February 11th 2020 by a group of leading NGOs from all over the European Union. Until today we have not received an official answer to our concern.

This concern is based upon numerous reports about massive logging in primary and old-growth forests in Romania – even in protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites, national parks and buffer zones of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

However, there are indications that Romania could still host more than 525.000 ha of forests with a very high degree of naturalness (never managed primary forests or long time untouched old-growth forests) as suggested by the PRIMOFARO inventory published in September 2019. There is a broad consensus among scientists, international institutions, politics and civil society that biodiversity and carbon rich forests deserve protection and non-intervention management to be able to tackle both the global climate and nature crises.

The majority of these high biodiversity value forests in Romania is located in Natura 2000 sites. The EU Habitat Directive determines that Member States are obliged to take „appropriate steps to avoid, in the special areas of conservation, the deterioration of natural habitats and the habitats of species as well as disturbance of the species for which the areas have been designated, in so far as such disturbance could be significant in relation to the objectives of this Directive.“ Any intervention at the site (plan or project) should only be approved after it has been ascertained that there is no adverse affect to „the integrity of the site“.

As there are serious doubts whether these legal provisions are implemented properly in Romania, facing the large scale of logging in protected habitats, endangering protected species and having obviously „adverse effects“ to the ecological integrity of natural sites, the EU Commission launched an infringement procedure against the Romanian authorities in February this year.

Furthermore we would like to bring to your attention, that an anonymous expert group represented by the Rector and the Dean Forest Faculty of the Transylvanian University of Brasov published several statements lately, drawing the picture that Romanian primary and old-growth forests are a result of Romanian long term forest management system and accusing scientists and NGOs of spreading „erroneous information regarding the forests of Romania and the way of their management“. They state that aspects of the EU infringement procedure are being the proof of „misunderstanding the realities in Romania“, caused by „misinformation, subjective interpretations and unfounded science “.

There have been many cases of evidence of old-growth and even primary forests being severely degraded on a large scale. Usually this happened on the pretence of so called „sustainable forest management“. This kind of forestry obviously results in systemic and deliberate cutting of tree stands which are in a very close to nature status and which very likely host rare and protected species. The assertion, that „sustainable forest management“ is sort of equal to protection of old growth forests is gravely misleading and not based on sound science.

The documents issued by this „expert group“, read like political papers, advocating the interests of forest industry players. Furthermore, the fact that the members of the „expert group“ are kept secret reminds at pre-democratic times and strongly contradicts contemporary and modern customs with scientific debates. Thus, we express strong concern about the misleading statements of a public academic institution by the Rector and the Dean (Forest Faculty) of the Transylvanian University of Brasov for sectoral economical interests, especially when the subject matter relates to comprehensive research, analysis and informed opinions of reputable scientists and NGOs.

There is a broad consensus in science and society, which is also backed by the just published EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, that an integration of conservation and restoration measures is urgently needed. We reemphasize, that Romania gave a commitment with adopting the UN-Convention on Biological Diversity to contribute to global biodiversity protection and is bound to implement the EU Nature Directives. On EU-level, the new Biodiversity Strategy states that it is „particularly important to strictly protect the EU’s remaining primary and old-growth forests“. The strategy aims for strict protection of 10 percent of the EU marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

There are indications, that approximately 8% of the forests in Romania are in a very close to nature status. The protection of these forests would perfectly fit into the contemporary protection schemes in Europe and would signal internationally that Romania is willing to give an appropriate contribution.

Thus, again, we urgently call on you to take steps to comprehensively and permanently preserve all remains of old-growth and primary forests in Romania. It is important to do this based on scientific grounds and transparent rules.
Therefore, we ask you to take the following steps:
• All primary and old-growth forests in Romania should be included in (enlarged) Natura 2000 sites. EU’s Natura 2000 legislation provides the legal base, the Primofaro inventory gives indications about the locations of potential natural forests.
• Old-growth and primary forests on state property should be put under non-intervention management immediately.
• Owners of natural forests on private or municipal property need to be compensated for accepting non-intervention management for high biodiversity value sites. Therefore a long-term compensation mechanism is urgently required.
We strongly urge you to ensure the full protection of Romania’s unique natural forest heritage – and we do offer co-operation in this huge undertaking.

Signed by representatives of: EuroNatur Foundation, Agent Green, ARA, Bruno Manser Fonds, BUND – Friends of the Earth Germany, BUND Naturschutz in Bayern e.V., German NGO Working Group on Forest, International Young Naturefriends (iynf), Hnutí DUHA – Friends of the Earth Czech, Friends of the Earth Europe, Pro Regenwald, ROBIN WOOD e.V., REMOTE – Research on Mountain Temperate Primary Forests, Michael Succow Foundation, Skydda Skogen, ProRegenwald, Centar za životnu sredinu – Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina, Neuer Weg.

 

Here is the link to the scan of the original letter.

A snapshot of forests with great potential

April 21, 2020, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The PRIMOFARO study: an assessment of Romania’s precious primary and old growth forests. A statement by EuroNatur foundation.

Some of the largest and most significant remaining tracts of the EU’s primary and old-growth forests are found in Romania. Many still exist because they are found in relatively inaccessible locations and have thus far avoided the impacts of human hands and modern development. These forests deserve strict protection on grounds of solid scientific data. Such forests are rare in the European Union, but they still do persist.

A contemporary debate is taking place in the EU that recognises the importance of non-intervention protection of intact natural ecosystems and is seeking consensus on targets for such protection. The Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), in its post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework draft report is proposing strict non-intervention protection of 10% of the world’s land surface in the next decade. Romania has the unique potential to achieve this by actually protecting places that to this day maintain a continuum of intact natural values that have existed for many hundreds, if not thousands of years – its most intact primary and old-growth forests.

It follows that to do this, the location of these forests need to be comprehensively understood. For decades, debate over the existence, amount and location of Romania’s intact forests has raged. However, an ecologically informed scientific consensus has not yet been reached. One reason for this is that the thing that is being attempted to be measured is a moving target – Romania’s close to nature forests are being logged and degraded at a rapid rate, and the ability to reach this consensus is constrained as no national logging moratorium in contentious forest areas has ever been enacted. This must change.

Given this context, the PRIMOFARO study, published by EuroNatur in 2019, is a contemporary attempt to gain a snapshot of forests that have the greatest potential as primary and old growth forests. It identifies forests that potentially indicate a high level of naturalness in comparison to forests that have been relatively recently logged, degraded or managed. Expanding beyond the restrictive and ecologically compromised current Romanian definition of “virgin forests”, the PRIMOFARO study holistically assesses Romania’s forests from the perspective of biodiversity conservation commitments, including the CBD, the IUCN and the EU’s Nature Directives.

Limitations of the study, which are based on visual analysis of aerial photographs with a corresponding error rate, are described transparently in the report, and the study explicitly invites further ecological verification of its inventory.

The PRIMOFARO study, in recognition of national and international climate and biodiversity commitments, offers policy and decision makers a tool to assess and deliver on these commitments.

At EuroNatur, we and our supporters are proud of our ongoing commitment to the conservation of Romania’s magnificent forests. As such, we urge the Romanian government to take the following steps to ensure these forests are forever protected:

  • Ensure that government intervention, discourse and participation in the forest discussion in Romania is scientifically based, transparent and accountable
  • Immediately place a moratorium on all potential primary and old growth forests, including those forests identified in PRIMOFARO, and other scientific studies
  • Resource and facilitate a scientific verification of the conservation and environmental values of these forests in relation to national and international biodiversity and climate targets, goals and commitments
  • Increase the size of existing protected areas to incorporate all primary and old growth forests and ensure strict protection of these forests

 

Primary and old growth forests still exist in the Romanian Carpathians…
…but the loggings destroy the Paradise Forests.