Domogled: Agent Green reports the crisis to the Prosecutor General after 54 days and calls for real protection of the park
Bucharest, 2 October 2026 – Yesterday Agent Green filed an in rem criminal complaint and an urgent request to preserve evidence with the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice concerning the prevention, monitoring and management of fires in Domogled–Valea Cernei National Park.
It has been 54 days since the first of the two officially acknowledged fires began. The first burned between 9 and 25 August and affected approximately 37 hectares. The second, reported on 2 September, has affected around 400 hectares and still has active hotspots.[1] On 1 October, three Black Hawk helicopters made 107 water drops, while over 120 firefighters, forestry staff, rangers, mountain rescuers and volunteers were mobilised for 2 October.[2] The forecast remains unfavourable, with the fire danger index potentially reaching the extreme threshold on 5 October.[3]
The complaint does not establish guilt. Agent Green asks prosecutors to examine the whole decision-making chain: DSU, IGSU, the General Inspectorate of Aviation, ISU “Semenic”, the response command, the prefect and emergency committees, Băile Herculane city hall, Romsilva, the Băile Herculane Forestry District, the park administration and the central authorities responsible for environment, forests and protected areas. It also requests examination of decisions on monitoring between the two fires, resource levels and the failure to request additional international capacity through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.[4]
“We respect and admire the firefighters, pilots, rangers, mountain rescuers and forestry staff on the front line. The complaint does not target the people sent into battle, but the decisions of those obliged to prevent, coordinate and provide them with every necessary resource. After 54 days and over 400 hectares affected, asking for an investigation is not excessive. It is the minimum of public accountability”, says Gabriel Păun, President of Agent Green.
Domogled is about more than protecting Băile Herculane’s residents and infrastructure. It also means protecting the “residents above”: old-growth forests, Banat black pine, beech forests, birds, mammals and the thousands of organisms forming one of Europe’s most important natural complexes.
A struggle that began in 2009
Agent Green’s first major confrontation over Domogled concerned DN66A. In December 2009, the organisation sued the park administration over its approval of section 3, although the planned route crossed integral protection zones for 5.5 kilometres, including Stânca Roșie. The park’s approval was essential to continuing the chain of authorisations.[5]
In 2010, twenty activists blocked the works at Câmpușel. Agent Green and partner organisations produced Romania’s first independent biodiversity counter-study for a road project. During 38 days of fieldwork, they identified 213 mammal crossing points, 25 bat species, priority habitats and a golden eagle nest around 500 metres from the route. The study showed that 2,552 hectares of the last Intact Forest Landscape in temperate Europe would be compromised.[6] The project was blocked, but the threat did not disappear.
In 2017, Agent Green and EuroNatur launched the investigation series “Un masacru național / Out of Control”. The first episode documented logging in Domogled, including Cernișoara, the last valley then remaining almost untouched. It exposed the structural conflict in Romsilva simultaneously managing park conservation and commercial forest exploitation.[7]
In May 2018, Agent Green and EuroNatur organised a protest and documentation mission in Domogled with Thomas Waitz and Senator Mihai Goțiu. The delegation confronted representatives of Romsilva and the park administration in the field, including director Ioan Gașpar, in an episode activists described as the “Romsilva–Gașpar ambush”. Two banners of around 100 m² were unfurled to stop logging in national parks.[8]
In July 2019, together with ROBIN WOOD and EuroNatur, Agent Green installed a 50-metre banner at Stânca Roșie, suspended over a valley of around 200 metres. The protest warned that one kilometre of DN66A would cross the core zone of the UNESCO Ciucevele Cernei component and could endanger the entire transnational site of primary and old-growth beech forests.[9]
Agent Green also took Domogled’s defence to court. Actions concerning the forest management plans of Băile Herculane, Baia de Aramă and Padeș produced suspensions, annulments and major victories: almost 20,000 hectares protected by the final ruling in the Baia de Aramă case, 14,612 hectares at Padeș and the first-instance annulment in 2023 of the management plan covering 29,058 hectares at Băile Herculane. In 2026, the High Court ordered a retrial of the Baia de Aramă annulment case.[10] The Tismana Forestry District management plan was also challenged by Agent Green.[11] All these legal actions support the European Commission’s infringement proceedings against Romania for deliberate degradation of protected areas.
Agent Green and its partners have consistently backed the campaign for a minimum 75% non-intervention area in national parks. In 2022, the Ministry of Environment officially adopted this target and designated Domogled as a pilot project, starting from only 48% strict protection.[12]
Today, that very achievement risks being undermined. The August 2024 version of the new management plan, published by the park administration,[13] retains the possibility of building DN66A through the Cerna Valley. In Agent Green’s assessment, the route would entail irreversible interventions at Stânca Roșie, including blasting and construction of a cantilevered road, affecting beech forests, cliff habitats, crag martins and two nearby documented golden eagle nests. Overlap with UNESCO forest areas could lead to boundary changes or affect their status.[14]
Agent Green calls for complete extinguishment of the fire using every necessary resource, publication of the operational decision timeline, activation of Copernicus mapping, independent assessment of ecological damage, protection of natural regeneration, genuine achievement of 75% non-intervention and removal from the management plan of any provision that could reopen the way to DN66A construction.
Press contact: Gabriel Păun — President of Agent Green, office@agentgreen.org
References
[1] IGSU, “Sustained operations to extinguish the fires in Domogled National Park”, 28.09.2026
[2] IGSU, response situation on 2.10.2026
[3] Risk forecast and Agent Green’s ultimatum
[4] Criminal complaint filed by Agent Green, 1.10.2026
[5] Action against the park administration’s approval for DN66A, 2009
[6] Biodiversity counter-study for DN66A
[7] EuroNatur and Agent Green, “Out of Control”, 2017
[8] Domogled protest and Thomas Waitz mission, 2018
[9] Agent Green–ROBIN WOOD–EuroNatur action against DN66A, 2019
[10] Domogled litigation: final judgment and Padeș; Băile Herculane; Baia de Aramă, High Court 2026
[11] “Forest Lawyer” list of legal actions — Tismana Forestry District
[12] Ministry of Environment, pilot project for at least 75% non-intervention
[13] PNDVC administration, management plan and August 2024 version
[14] Agent Green, cartographic analysis of the DN66A route, field observations concerning Stânca Roșie and correspondence sent to UNESCO — documents available to the press on request.
