A final, historic and enormous victory for the forest at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in Agent Green’s case against the corrupt Environment Ministry!
Slowly but surely, we are emerging from the fog. Information on all of Romania’s forests, kept secret by the Government and Romsilva for the past 30 years, must be published.
Yesterday, the Court dismissed the Environment Ministry’s appeal as unfounded and requires the institution to publish forest management plans. These documents contain information on every patch of forest in Romania and the logging plans of the State or private owners. Information such as the volume of timber in the forest, tree species, the average age of stands, the types of logging planned or the volume of timber approved for cutting over the past 10 years.
Starting today, anyone can ask the ministry or the forestry district in their area of interest for the forest management plan to obtain information about the forest. Once obtained, these documents can be used to see whether the forest is being managed properly or abusively and to act when timber cutting deemed legal is in fact destructive logging that must be stopped before the harm is done. Management plans are approved by ministerial order, and a minister caught having approved a destructive plan can and must be held accountable.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal decision can be consulted HERE.
