Tag Archives: virgin forest

Romania’s old-growth forests under immediate threat

March 3, 2017agent green, Boia Mica, campaign, euronatur, Petition, primary forest, romania, virgin forestWoodland

EuroNatur and Agent Green raise the alarm: forest industry groups and Ministry push for lower fines for illegal logging and destruction of primeval forests in Romania

#SaveParadiseForests: Launch of international campaign to protect Europe’s last paradise forests

Bucharest, Radolfzell, 3 March 2017. Romania hosts about two thirds of the European Union’s old-growth forests. The Carpathian Mountains in Romania are home to one of the greatest treasures of Europe’s natural heritage. However, largely unnoticed by the European public, in recent years tens of thousands of hectares of old-growth forests have been permanently destroyed. Even national parks and Natura 2000 sites cannot protect the forests from the chainsaws – large parts of the destruction of old-growth forests take place right in these areas.

In order to make this ecological tragedy an international issue, nature conservation foundation EuroNatur and Romanian NGO Agent Green now launch the joint campaign “SaveParadiseForests”.

“The Romanian government has to live up to its responsibility for the European natural heritage. Europe’s last paradise forests can only be saved by an immediate moratorium on logging on all forest areas that potentially include old-growth forests. Once primeval forests are destroyed, it takes many centuries until forests can reach a comparable ecological quality again”, states EuroNatur CEO Gabriel Schwaderer. “Particularly old-growth forests on state-owned land must receive strict protection immediately.”

The Romanian parliament currently discusses a bill which would dramatically lower the maximum penalties for illegal logging. This might further aggravate the forests’ situation. “Reducing fines for illegal logging by 90% is a completely wrong signal. Destruction of old-growth forests must not be downgraded to trivial offence. People in Romania are fed up with corruption and misgovernment. Criminal activities are a main reason for forest destruction in Romania. This law of amnesty for forest destruction therefore has to be discarded”, demands Gabriel Paun, president of Romanian nature conservation NGO Agent Green. On the contrary, he calls on the government to strongly increase penalties for illegal logging and for destruction of old-growth forests.

Agent Green and EuroNatur jointly call on the international public to sign a petition to protect old-growth forests in Romania. “The more people sign this international call, the stronger is our message to the Romanian government”, says Gabriel Paun.

Fagaras Natura 2000 Site, Romania - July 2016: Ancient forest and logging in the southern Carpathians. — Wild Boia Mica valley, Fagaras Natura 2000 Site.

Romania: Amnesty for forest crimes?

February 27, 2017agent green, amnesty, crime, Government, illegal, logging, Ministry, romania, virgin forestWoodland

Facebook posting by Agent Green:

“Instead of speeding up the process to strictly protect the last virgin forests, Romanian State plans to decriminalize planned logging in such forests.

The forest crime law is currently under revision following influence by forest mafia whose lobbyists asked last week in the Parliament to decriminalize many forest crimes and to reduce fines to 10% of the current value.

The draft promoted by the Forest Ministry to be sent to Parliament, so far decriminalizes approval of logging in virgin forests. At the same time there is no fine for actually logging in virgin forests.

Agent Green calls on Ministry for Forests and Water to demand the Parliament to criminalize both, approval and logging of virgin forests with sanctions and prison.”

Logging in old growth forest, Retezat Natura 2000 site. Property of Holzindustrie Schweighofer. — Logging in Retezat Natura 2000 site. Property of Holzindustrie Schweighofer.

Boia Mică valley in Făgăraș: Europe’s wildest mountain valley

August 3, 2016Boia Mica, endangered, Fagaras, Natura 2000, pathless, protection, virgin forest, wildernessWoodland

Romanian NGO calls for better protection of Europe’s virgin forest „hot spot“ in Făgăraș Mountain Natura 2000 site

Radolfzell. There are only a few places left in Europe where wilderness in its original form still can be found: Mountains and valleys without roads, even no trails and primary forests. Făgăraș is one of the last strongholds of European large wilderness and it hosts probably the wildest valley in the heart of Europe: Boia Mică, a steep, remote valley with a large, untouched and almost inaccessible virgin forest.

The Romanian NGO Agent Green warns today that also this paradise could be destroyed rapidly. In the past years many primeval forests in the Făgăraș Mountains have been logged and thus are destroyed forever. Some clearcuts in the Natura 2000 site covering most parts of the Făgăraș Mountains spread over hundreds of hectares. The German EuroNatur Foundation and Agent Green call on the Romanian Government to halt logging of virgin forests in the Făgăraș Mountains and to establish a National Park, meeting the international IUCN criteria. Especially the outstanding Boia Mică valley deserves immediate action to prevent destruction.

“Boia Mică is located in the Natura 2000 site Făgăraș Mountains. According to European legislation it is already protected. But apparently the designation as Natura 2000 is not preventing logging as we have seen many negative examples and clear violation of the provisions of Natura 2000. The Romanian authorities urgently need to enforce nature protection in Făgăraș Mountains and in all Natura 2000 sites,” demands Gabriel Schwaderer, Executive Director of EuroNatur.

The upper part of Boia Mică is completely untouched, steep slopes and canyons prevented it so far from logging and hydro dam plans. However exploitation plans are already there. „Boia Mică is one of Europe’s prime wilderness places. This is definitely one of the largest and least accessible old-growth forests in Europe. I have seen most of Europe’s wild forests,“ photographer and book author Matthias Schickhofer says, „it is comparable to the most valuable sites such as Biogradska Gora national park (Montenegro), Perucica virgin forest ( Bosnia and Herzegowina) or Polands Biolowieza forest. It would be a disaster for whole Europe, if it would be destroyed.“

Martin Mikolas, a Slovak forest scientist working at the Department of Forest Ecology at University of Life Sciences in Prague, is doing research in Boia Mica since many years and says: „We found there probably the oldest beech tree in Romania, with more than 500 years! We measured 480 tree rings, but the tree was cored in height of one meter, and we did not get the centre of the tree because of rot. So the real age could be between 500-520 years. All together, we had 15 trees older than 400 years on 14 plots in Boia Mică, what is an incredible result. Our plots have been selected randomly.“

In July 2016 Martin Mikolas, Matthias Schickhofer and Romanian forest experts also visited other virgin forests sites in Fagaras such as Ucea Mare, Arpaselu and Strambei valley. The scientists confirm that all those forests are untouched and comply fully with the Romanian legal criteria for virgin forest protection. However, no one of them is officially registered as virgin forest and thus not protected properly according to the Romanian forest law yet. Logging roads have already reached their borders. Agent Green and EuroNatur urge the Romanian Government to take immediate action to save those wild places of European significance.