Tag Archives: Romsilva

Romania’s National Parks Deliberately Destroyed by State Forestry Managers

September 20, 2018agent green, deforestation, Environment, euronatur, forest, Gavrilescu, logging, national park, Natura 2000, nature, old growth, primeval, romania, Romsilva, virginWoodland

Investigative video footage reveals scandalous logging in Romania’s Cheile Nerei-Beusnita National Park

New video evidence published today by environmental NGOs Agent Green and EuroNatur Foundation clearly demonstrates that forest destruction in Romania’s Cheile Nerei-Beusnita National Park is comprehensively out of control. Logging of old growth forests is being deliberately driven by state forest enterprise Romsilva. At least 60 percent of the national park is being treated like a logging site, not as a protected area. Agent Green and EuroNatur Foundation call on the Romanian Ministry for Environment to immediately stop commercial logging in national parks and to dismiss Romsilva from managing protected areas.

Agent Green investigator and journalist Andrei Ciurcanu witnessed the scandalous logging in old forests, destruction of protected travertine-rock sites, inexcusable incompetence and ignorance of nature conservation responsibilities by national park staff, and pressure being applied from state foresters on national park managers and scientists in order to increase logging in the national park.

OUT OF CONTROL #ep3 Cheile-Nerei National Park from AGENT GREEN on Vimeo.

Romania hosts an estimated two thirds of the EU’s remaining primary forests. But huge tracts of logging are continuously destroying this important sanctuary of European natural heritage, even in national parks and EU Natura 2000 protection sites. Romania has been systematically ignoring international obligations like IUCN standards and many thousands of hectares of supposedly protected forests have been destroyed in the last 10 to 15 years. Today, large areas of national parks look like badly managed logging sites.

The major driver of this disaster for nature is apparantly Romania’s state forests enterprise Romsilva, which manages 12 of 13 national parks. All of them suffer from heavy logging pressure. It is clear that the Romanian Government turns a blind eye and tolerates enormous levels of commercial logging on more than 50% of the national park surface.

In the investigative video, the former national park director Stefan Dascalu admits that strong pressure was applied from the state forests administration to increase logging in the so called national park “buffer zones”. The planned strictly protected zone of the park was downsized to only 39 percent due to pressure from Romsilva in order to boost logging areas and volumes. Logging operations with large logs and heavy machines even damaged rare travertine formations, which are under protection by EU legislation. When confronted with the evidence, Romsilva foresters pretended to be badly informed and blamed the national park administration: “We do not know what is protected. It is not our job”, they said. The current national park director physically ran away from the investigation team and information requests regarding logging volumes were not answered.

“Logging in Romania’s national parks spreads like cancer. This scandal is out of control. The Government is doing nothing to protect our natural heritage. It is a national shame that Romania continues to destroy some of Europe’s most precious natural heritage“, Gabriel Paun, President of Agent Green said.

“The logging drama in Romania is currently the most pressing nature crisis in Europe, but still largely unseen. The EU Commission has to become immediately active and involved in order to stop the destruction. After the terrible forest fires in many areas of Europe this summer, the proper protection of our last intact natural forests has become even more important“, Gabriel Schwaderer, CEO from EuroNatur Foundation stated.

On April 26 Agent Green handed over 76,120 signatures from Romanian citizens to Environmental Minister and Vice Prime Minister Gratiela Gavrilescu, demanding an immediate logging ban in national parks. Unfortunately no action has taken place.

Agent Green and EuroNatur urge the Romanian Environmental Minister to immediately stop commercial logging in national parks, dismiss Romsilva from managing national parks and other protected areas, implement modern and nature conservation oriented management systems, provide adequate funds to properly manage protected areas and to compensate private land owners in protected areas for nature conservation objectives.

The campaign initiative „Out of control“ exposes the environmental disaster that is the logging and loss of irreplaceable old growth forests in Romania’s national parks. Three new episodes showing the ongoing logging in primeval and old growth forests in Romania’s national parks will be published in the weeks to come.

Here you can view the previous “Out of Control” episodes about the alarming devastation of Romania’s Domogled – Valea Cernei and Semenic – Cheile Carasului national parks.

Protest action by Agent Green in Romania’s wounded Domogled national park

Romanian State Forest Manager caught stealing trees from National Park

September 13, 2018AgentGreen, beech, corruption, euronatur, forest, national park, old growth, romania, RomsilvaWoodland

Ministry of Environment must put an end to all logging in national parks

Agent Green investigators have exposed the theft of trees from Domogled – Valea Cernei National Park by a Romsilva employee from the Baia de Arama forest district. Romsilva is the designated state agency managing all State Forests and 12 National Parks in Romania.

Romania hosts the largest share of the EU’s remaining primeval and natural forests. But these primeval and old growth forests, including in national parks, are being deliberately logged, degraded and destroyed. Investigators of the Romanian NGO Agent Green have discovered that forest logging within Domogled – Valea Cernei National Park has been undertaken by the national park manager who is supposedly responsible for their conservation.

Gabriel Paun, president of Agent Green was in the park that day. “I was in an area of the national park where old growth beech forest is found. I found loggers there even though there was no legal concession on that spot. Immediately I knew the logging was illegal. The biggest shock was that the thief was the one who should defend the forest from illegal logging: Romsilva, the state forest and park manager. The individual was using a local logging and transport company to get the wood out of the park. He was not shy to admit that the plan was to cut the whole forest”, Paun says.

Romsilva Was Caught In The Act While Stealing Forests In Domogled National Park from AGENT GREEN on Vimeo.

Agent Green and the German nature conservation foundation EuroNatur have launched the joint campaign “Save Paradise Forests” to call the attention of the international public to the colossal destruction of old forests in Romania’s national parks.

In this case, the illegally cut beech trees were loaded in a rented truck. The investigators followed the truck on the ground and by air with a drone to a log yard that is hidden in the middle of the forest. There the wood was transferred to another truck that is owned by the logging company. The trees were never registered in the official application and portal for wood traceability.

“We are dealing here with a clear case showing how one can easily cheat the system because its improvement is blocked by the current Government. Log yards are being used illegal wood and the Government tolerates this. Sadly, today we have caught in the act an employee of the State forest company”, alleges Paun.

The investigators contacted the police and sent all the evidence to the local chief of police who investigated the case further. In a letter [1] to Agent Green investigators, the chief of police concluded that the transport was legal. But the case was taken higher to the regional Forest Guard. Their commissaries identified the illegal logging area and the evidence was sent straight to criminal prosecutors [2].

“It is alarming that the people who should guard the forest steal from it, even from within a national park. We call on the Romanian Government to immediately halt commercial logging in all Romanian national parks. Those forests are part of our shared European heritage, their destruction is irreversible”, says Gabriel Schwaderer, CEO of EuroNatur.

Currently, none of Romania’s 13 national parks meets the international standards set by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) [3]. According to IUCN, the key principle of a national park is non-intervention and forest owners must agree to establish a national park and they should not be financially disadvantaged by the strict protection status of their forests.

EuroNatur and Agent Green call on the Romanian Government to:

Immediately and completely ban logging in all national parks and to improve implementation of its primeval forests protection program
Enlarge core zones, meaning non-intervention zones, of all national parks according to international standards and IUCN recommendations of at least 75% of surface area
Take over the administration of all national parks by the State, establishment of independent and modern national park management in all Romanian parks following best practice examples (Germany, Austria, Sweden etc.)
Ensure adequate public funding for and promotion of Romania’s national parks
Provide private forest owners within the national park boundaries with appropriate compensation
Re-define the boundaries of national parks based on rigorous scientific criteria and include all remaining old growth/primeval forests in Romania’s national parks core zones
Develop and implement an integrated national ecotourism strategy to ensure the preservation and promotion of national parks, to improve services and provide support to local communities
Establish new national parks including in Făgăraş, Giumalau, Ţarcu and Ciucas forests

Notes:
[1] Letter no. 626462 / 30.7.2018 of Ministry for Internal Affairs, Gorj County Police Inspectorate, Tismana Police Station
[2] Ramnicu Valcea Forest Guard letter 14185 / 28.8.2018
[3] Briefing about the drama of national parks in Romania.

Forest destruction in Romania: EU-Fact-Finding Mission und Anti-Mafia-Raid

May 30, 2018agent green, domogled, EU, euronatur, forest, MEP, national park, Natura 2000, old growth, primeval, romania, Romsilva, Schweighofer, Thomas Waitz, VideoWoodland

National Park Director from State Forestry Romsilva: “The forest itself wants to be cut down”

In the early morning of May 30, 2018, officials of the Romanian anti-mafia prosecution office DIICOT began a large-scale investigation against illegal practices in the wood industry in Romania. The DIICOT press release announces: “Public prosecutors of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism have together with police officers within the Public Order Department and the Department of Economic Crime conducted 23 house searches in five districts of the country and in Bucharest.” The press release speaks of a “destructive action by an organized criminal group” specializing in offenses of misappropriation of public wood and also auctions, tax evasion, unfair competition, deforestation and other offenses. “

There is a “reasonable suspicion” that since 2011, several individuals have formed an organized criminal group whose members are abusing public auctions organized at the level of forestry departments in order to procure significant additional quantities of wood for processing in sawmills. Furthermore, there is reasonable suspicion that some of the processed wood comes from illegal wood sources. The estimated damage amounts to more than 25 million euros, according to DIICOT. The members of the organized criminal group also benefited from the support of some officials. A number of people will be brought to the DIICOT headquarters for questioning. In the operation special units of the gendarmerie brigade “Vlad Tepes” (the civil name of “Count Dracula”) are also involved.

“The forest itself wants to be cut down”…

Primeval forest demand itself to be cut. Really? from AGENT GREEN on Vimeo.

EU Fact Finding mission and protest action in Domogled National Park

The investigation action by Romanian anti-mafia prosecutors took place four days after a publicly-acknowledged Fact Finding mission by MEP Thomas Waitz and a protest by activists from Agent Green in Domogled National Park (26 May 2018) which hosts large areas of primeval and old growth beech forest that has been affected heavily by aggressive logging. The ongoing destruction of high conservation forest stands in this national park is just one example for the wide spread malfunction of official nature conservation in Romania.

The visit of Thomas Waitz and representatives of EuroNatur and Agent Green revealed dramatic forest destruction in the heart of the national park: cutting of ancient beech forests, oversized and erosion-promoting forest roads or soil devastation by tractor paths on steep slopes.

National Park Director Ioan Gaspar gave the remarkable statement in front of the camera on Saturday, May 26: “The forest itself wants to be cut down”. Romsilva manager Dragos Mihai, who is in charge of 12 out of 13 Romanian national parks, claimed on the spot – unswervingly of obvious deforestation – that there is no logging in old-growth forests in the national park. He also denied that the Romanian national parks are corresponding to the international standards of the world nature conservation organization IUCN and insisted that deforestation in the so-called buffer zone of the park was legal.

However, according to the IUCN rules, at least 75% of a national park must be strictly protected. Furthermore, the Romanian National Park Law (O.U.G. 57/2007) defines that the national parks must comply with the IUCN category II, which gives priority to protection of ecosystems and recreation. The National Park Administration is therefore required by law to exclude “any form of exploitation of natural resources and land use” that is incompatible with conservation objectives.

“A Romsilva manager admitted in conversation at the site that half of the national park is de facto no longer a national park because of loggin,,” the environmentalist and journalist Matthias Schickhofer reports, who participated in the mission for the EuroNatur Foundation. “All the state foresters and national park employees present have hardly lost a sentence on the protection of ecosystems during the entire visit. Obviously, they are only concerned about the highest possible revenue from the use of wood. But logging in national parks is in severe conflict with existing laws. The forest destruction in Domogled National Park is only the tip of the iceberg: The large-scale action of the special authorities against criminal structures in Romanian timber industry proves that there is a systemic problem. Romania urgently needs a fundamental turnaround in the forest industry“.