Agent Green reports logging in Bucegi to the DNA

Agent Green draws attention to the deliberate and illegal destruction of the centuries-old forests in Valea Cerbului in Bucegi Natural Park. Logging continues, although according to SUMAL the permit has expired since 30 April. The Natural Park has no approved management plan. There is no environmental assessment, and Romsilva illegally changed the boundary of the Abruptul Prahovean nature reserve to facilitate the logging of these centuries-old forests.

Following Agent Green’s protest on 24 May 2021, Romsilva responded by publishing footage purportedly showing that no logging was taking place and that the forest was still intact. Agent Green returns with additional footage from last week showing how destructive machinery has cut through the centuries-old forest, creating new forest roads and deep wounds and removing giant trees. More than 5000 cubic metres are scheduled to be removed from Valea Cerbului under logging permits that expired on 30 April. The Natural Park has neither a management plan nor appropriate environmental assessment studies to justify the current logging, which has an obvious economic character.

Moreover, during the protest, Romsilva announced that the plots being logged were no longer part of the Nature Reserve because its boundary had been moved higher, towards the alpine zone where little forest remains. Valea Cerbului is the main tourist access route to Omu Peak and is part of Bucegi Natural Park, the Bucegi Natura 2000 site and the Abruptul Prahovean Nature Reserve. It includes virgin forests mapped in the 2004 PIN MATRA inventory, protected by Environment Ministry orders from 2012 and 2016. In 2018, the new Primofaro inventory included these forests as potentially primary and old-growth forests.

Agent Green traced the monumental trees logged in Valea Cerbului by Migab Forest. The timber is made into parquet flooring, doors and MDF boards at the Turkish Yldiz Entegre factory near Pitești, and into drums and reels at the MarMob factory near Rădăuți, Suceava County. The organisation calls on these corporations to adopt social responsibility policies and reject timber from Bucegi.

Agent Green will notify the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) this week because Romsilva illegally changed the boundary of the Abruptul Prahovean nature reserve. Agent Green also draws the Environment Ministry’s attention to the fact that the Bucegi Mountains had the highest level of protection, namely National Park status, established in 1974. They were, however, secretly downgraded to Natural Park status.

The organisation asks the ministry to restore Bucegi’s National Park status and strictly protect at least 90% of this protected area’s forests, including the whole of Valea Cerbului and all the valleys with tourist trails, which protect not only biodiversity but also human settlements.