Tag Archives: virgin forest

Protest action with bear in Berlin: EU environmental ministers must protect Romania’s virgin forests

March 6, 2019action, deforestation, European Parliament, forest, logging, Natura 2000, Petition, protection, Robin Wood, virgin forestWoodland

Robin Wood e.V. protests against scandalous deforestation in Romanian national parks and Natura 2000 sites in front of Romanian embassy in Berlin

On Tuesday, 5th March, parallel to the meeting of the EU environment ministers in Brussels, activists of the environmental organisation Robin Wood e.V. demonstrated against the destruction of the Romanian virgin forests. Their protest took place with symbolic “logging” of an old tree in front of the Romanian embassy in Berlin.

Equipped with foresters clothes and a chainsaw, they shredded a tree trunk in front of the Romanian embassy to draw attention to the massive deforestation in Romania’s highly valuable forests. People in bear costumes were holding a banner with the following text on it: “No Loggings in Romanian National Parks”.
“The Romanian virgin forests are being illegally logged – in national parks, biosphere reserves and Natura 2000 sites – and we call on the Romanian government to take effective measures to prevent this” says Jana Ballenthien, forest expert from Robin Wood. The environmental activists used the Romanian EU presidency to draw the spotlight on Romania and illegal logging. Even in the Natura 2000 sites, which are actually protected under European law, deforestation is massively taking place in Romania. “The last virgin forests on our earth with their biodiversity and their function for a stable climate must be reliably protected – not only on other continents, also here in Europe. We call on the Romanian government to use its presidency of the European Council to put forest protection right at the top of the agenda,” says Ballenthien.
Romania’s forests biodiversity is overwhelmingly rich and the forests provide habitats for numerous endemic and threatened species. The Carpathians host most of the last virgin and natural forests in the European Union – almost untouched since the ice age. They are invaluable for climate and biodiversity. Many regions in the Romanian mountains are difficult to access and are amongst the few remaining refuges of European brown bears, lynxes and wolves.
In particular, Robin Wood calls on the Romanian government and Romsilva to establish an effective control system to prevent illegal logging in national parks and to enforce EU legislation consistently to protect designated Natura 2000 sites. EU-wide sanctions for illegalities in Natura 2000 sites must be ensured. In addition, logging and trade in illegal timber must also be effectively prevented within the European internal market.

Romania’s virgin forests need help. So please sign this petition and spread it further. Thank you!

Bears protesting for the conservatin of their forest homes (© Stephan Röhl, CC BY SA 4.0)

Activists in front of the Romanian embassy in Berlin (© Stephan Röhl, CC BY SA 4.0)

European Parliament: High Level Conference about Virgin Forests Crisis in Romania

November 18, 2018AgentGreen, Benedek Javor, conference, EU, euronatur, European Commission, European Parliament, Humberto Delgado Rosa, romania, Thomas Waitz, virgin forestWoodland

Romania hosts the largest tracts of virgin forests within the EU. But they are vanishing due to industrial logging, corruption and corporate greed. However, this major nature tragedy is almost unknown in wider Europe. Therefore, EuroNatur Foundation and Romanian environmental organisation Agent Green organised an expert conference in the European Parliament in Brussels on the 8th November. The conference was hosted by Thomas Waitz and Benedek Jávor, both Member of the European Parliament.

Benedek Jávor opened the conference with the words: “Virgin forests have a special importance in Europe, not only for biodiversity but also for ecosystem services… In Romania they are under huge pressure not only from illegal logging, but also from legal logging. Deforestation is closely related to corruption issues and problems with governance. Low level of governance and high level of corruption contribute to legal and illegal logging.”

Thomas Waitz then also gave a clear introduction: “I am a forester, I’m not against logging as such.” He had been in Romania in May 2018 upon invitation from EuroNatur and Agent Green. During this trip he also talked to corporations and found out that forest areas are massively overlogged. In national parks the non-core protected areas, so called buffer zones should not be larger than 25% of the area. In Domogled National Park, which he also visited, the buffer zone is bigger than 50%. Only a third of the park’s forests are under strict protection. “There are rules how forestry interventions should look like. As I am a professional, I could see what sort of interventions they did.” But “…they are not even applying their own weak rules.”

Gabriel Paun, president of the NGO Agent Green, also pointed out, that the deliberate destruction of virgin forests and Natura 2000 sites is happening with support of the Romanian government. In 14 years only 10% of the mapped virgin forests (Pin Matra study in 2004) have been put into the National Catalogue of Virgin Forests.

Gabriel Schwaderer, CEO of EuroNatur Foundation agreed that something is going wrong in Romania: “We consider this (National Catalogue) as a great tool… But we are wondering if it´s applied in the right way. And to be frank with you, sometimes I have the feeling that it´s not used really to protect those forests legally. But it´s is rather used to exclude as much as possible from it. And I have the question why only 21,000ha are inscribed in it, so many years after adopting this ministerial order” (in 2012).

Paun also said: “We put much hope after seeing the Bialowieza case that the EU will find ways to have a strong intervention to help save what´s left of our forests, which are also a European treasure.”

Humberto Delgado Rosa / EU-Commission: “Reports are unsettling, shocking and outrageous”

His hope will be supported as Humberto Delgado Rosa, Director of Natural Capital with DG Environment of the European Commission said: “You can see my presence as the proof that we do pay attention to this.” The reports by NGOs and media about logging of Romanian forests are “definitely a reason for EU concern. We do pay attention to his… We will monitor the situation as we did in Bialowieza. And we do have some new tools to monitor it better, including satellite technology…”

He stressed that “the reports by NGOs, the images and the presented documentaries about logging in Romania are unsettling, shocking and outrageous. He also made it clear that “all old growth forests” in Europe “require a non-intervention approach”.

With Natura 2000 sites there is a need for “better implementation…But the enforcement remains a challenge.” For the EU infringement procedure “We need some data gathering and we need to have some evidence that convinces us internally in the Commission.”

Sadly, Thomas Waitz added that the Romanian MEPs were invited to the conference, but none showed up: “as you can see… there is no Romanian MEP in the room. So it seems to be either a hurtful topic for them or they don´t care…”

Romanian EU-presidency: spotlight in the case

Gabriel Schwaderer concluded: “The Romanian virgin forests are vanishing while we speak. It´s a key European matter, thus EU involvement is crucial. The Romanian EU-presidency in 2019 will also give a spotlight on this case. We call on EU institutions to help and push to save this treasure. We see clear evidence of systematic violation of nature directives and call on EU institutions to act. He informed the audience that IUCN is also looking more deeply into the situation in Romania.

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

MEP Benedek Jávor opening the conference…

Humberto Delgado Rosa, MEP Thomas Waitz, Gabriel Schwaderer and Gabriel Paun at the Conference about Virgin Forests in Romania

Humberto Delgado Rosan and MEP Thomas Waitz

Interested audience at the EP Conference about Virgin Forests in Romania

Lush-blog: Why we must protect Romania’s primeval forests

June 25, 2018conservation, Environment, logging, lush, nature, primeval forest, romania, virgin forestWoodland

A new story published by Lush reports about the race to protect Romania’s primeval forests, deemed by the World Heritage Committee as being of ‘outstanding universal value’ from further destruction by logging. But behind scenes, regulators are stalling and with corruption in the mix, the issue is a complex one, writes investigator Katy Jenkyns for Lush.

Romania contains over half of all remaining tracts of pristine forest in the EU – home to wolf, brown bear, lynx and countless bird and plant species. Full of ancient energy surrounded by the rustle and twitch of life, birdsong in spring, animal tracks over winter snows, the trees are mainly European beech alongside other species such as oak, fir, elm, and maple.

Some of these trees are over 400-years-old, standing amongst younger saplings in a cycle of decay and renewal that takes place without any human intervention. Yet these untouched forests have become a fierce battleground.

It’s not just about biodiversity. Primeval forest locks down far more carbon than managed forest and is therefore significant in terms of climate change mitigation, but shockingly Romania has no up-to-date and inclusive inventory of where these unique areas of wilderness actually are, nor adequate regulatory systems in place to protect them.

Read the full story here…