BREAKING: infringement proceedings over forests

International press release — Agent Green, Client Earth, EuroNatur

Brussels, Bucharest — 12 February 2020

The European Commission has opened infringement proceedings against Romania over illegal logging

Agent Green proposes ambitious, unprecedented measures for nature to the Ministry of the Environment

The European Commission today announced its decision to launch infringement proceedings over several ongoing systemic failures by Romania’s authorities to protect forests. The announcement follows complaints submitted last year by Agent Green, Client Earth and EuroNatur concerning the ongoing planned destruction of tens of thousands of hectares of old-growth and primary forests. The NGOs accuse Romania’s authorities of approving logging in Natura 2000 protected areas without analysing its impact on these unique places. The lack of appropriate and strategic assessment before logging is approved in protected areas, and the denial of the right of access to environmental information, breach Community law. The European Commission’s systemic infringement proceedings also concern illegal logging nationwide and breaches of the EUTR regulation on timber traceability and preventing illegally harvested timber from being placed on the market. In this context, environmental activists welcome the infringement proceedings launched by the European Commission against Romania’s authorities, which they see as a source of hope for protecting Romania’s natural forests.

VIDEO (raw footage for free download, editing and distribution with “Agent Green” credited as the source)
Maramureș Mountains https://vimeo.com/390779889/d509f11e01
Făgăraș Mountains https://vimeo.com/390763655/1488847ec0
Primary and old-growth forests that are still intact https://vimeo.com/390782952/cb8ed13b64

Lawyer Ewelina Tylec-Bakalarz said: “The destruction of Romania’s forests is a huge systemic problem beyond the scale of the illegal logging in Bialowieza National Park that led to our actions 3 years ago, the infringement proceedings and the intervention of the European Court of Justice.”

“We are pursuing 56 court cases against the Ministry of the Environment, Romsilva and other Romanian authorities solely to gain access to some environmental information that has been abusively kept secret, such as forest management plans that hide the millions of cubic metres illegally logged, and cases to stop illegal logging approved by officials in breach of the nature protection directives,” added Agent Green lawyer Cătălina Rădulescu.

“Romania still harbours half a million hectares of primary and old-growth forests despite the abusive logging that has taken place from 2007 to the present when it joined the EU. Natura 2000 protected areas are hotspots of illegal logging. European legislation has been ignored. The Commission’s intervention therefore comes at the last moment, and we urge it to speed up the proceedings as the only real chance of saving most of the European old-growth forests still found in Romania. These forests are a habitat for many important and threatened plant and animal species. At the same time, they store huge amounts of carbon dioxide and are the best way to combat climate change,” said Gabriel Schwaderer, CEO of the EuroNatur Foundation.

“Imagine a single clear-cut covering no less than 3,700 hectares somewhere in the Munții Maramureșului Natura 2000 site, the region where forester Liviu Pop was recently killed. These mountains look like a devastated battlefield larger than the entire European capital — the city of Brussels. We have documented more than 10,000 hectares of clear-cuts in this protected area, including strictly protected priority habitats with ash and alder. These forests were a key habitat for many wildlife species. Timber worth at least 250 million euros has disappeared from this part of the country alone. The infringement proceedings were also launched over illegal logging in other protected areas in Romania, such as the Făgăraș Mountains — Romania’s loftiest mountains. The illegal logging has occurred in both state-owned and private forests. The situation is completely out of control. From today, Romania’s authorities have no choice but to do what is right for forests; otherwise they will pay dearly,” warned Gabriel Păun, President of Agent Green.

Despite Romanian society’s efforts to stop illegal logging, the phenomenon has spiralled out of control. The National Forest Inventory shows that about 18 million m3 are legally harvested in Romania each year. In 2009–2013, the same inventory reveals that an additional 8.8 million m3 disappeared annually through illegal logging. The volume of illegal logging rose in 2014–2018 to 20.6 million m3 a year, more than the entire legal harvest.

Agent Green, Client Earth and EuroNatur welcome the European Commission’s action to save Romania’s forests and call on the Romanian Government to:

1. Immediately comply with the European nature directives and the EU TR regulation on traceability and preventing the circulation of illegal timber
2. Strictly protect all primary and old-growth forests in Natura 2000 protected areas and beyond that overlap with the PRIMOFARO inventory
3. Increase the extent of Natura 2000 protected natural areas to 30% of the country’s territory and strictly protected areas to 10% of its territory. Logging in the 13 national parks must be strictly prohibited, and new national parks must be established in the Ciucaș, Țarcu, Făgăraș, Parâng and Giumalău–Rarău mountains.
4. Publish all protected natural area management plans, including species distribution maps at the highest resolution available and public-interest data from forest management plans, including compartment descriptions, maps and planned logging

Press contacts

• EuroNatur: Anja Arning, anja.arning@euronatur.org, Tel.: +49 (0)7732 – 92 72 13
• Agent Green: Gabriel Paun, gabriel.paun@agentgreen.org; Catalina Radulescu, info@agentgreen.org, +40740161116
• ClientEarth: Bianca Vergnaud, bvergnaud@clientearth.org, Tel: +32 (0)2 808 34 72

About EuroNatur

EuroNatur is a nature conservation foundation based in Radolfzell, Germany. Our efforts for a Europe with free-flowing rivers, ancient forests and a rich variety of cultural landscapes are transboundary in nature; we strengthen local conservation organizations and create international networks between them. Together with our Europe-wide partner network we create solutions that allow humans to live and work in harmony with nature. Our aim is a powerful network committed to protecting our European natural heritage.

About Agent Green

Agent Green Association is a Romanian non-profit NGO for environmental protection and biodiversity conservation founded in 2009 in Romania. Established to combat loss of biodiversity, Agent Green evolved into carrying out investigations, scientific approach, strategic cooperation and effective campaigns targeted at bringing about positive and lasting change for nature.

About ClientEarth

ClientEarth is a charity that uses the power of the law to protect people and the planet. We are international lawyers finding practical solutions for the world’s biggest environmental challenges. We are fighting climate change, protecting oceans and wildlife, making forest governance stronger, greening energy, making business more responsible and pushing for government transparency. We believe the law is a tool for positive change. From our offices in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin, Madrid and Beijing, we work on laws throughout their lifetime, from the earliest stages to implementation. And when those laws are broken, we go to court to enforce them.

Official announcement

Forests: Commission urges ROMANIA to stop illegal logging

The Commission is urging Romania to properly implement the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which prevents timber companies from producing and placing on the EU market products made from illegally harvested logs. In the case of Romania, the national authorities have been unable to effectively check the operators and apply appropriate sanctions. Inconsistences in the national legislation do not allow Romanian authorities to check large amounts of illegally harvested timber. In addition, the Commission has found that the Romanian authorities manage forests, including by authorising logging, without evaluating beforehand the impacts on protected habitats as required under the Habitats Directive and Strategic Environmental Assessment Directives. Furthermore, there are shortcomings in the access of the public to environmental information in the forest management plans. The Commission also found that protected forest habitats have been lost within protected Natura 2000 sites in breach of the Habitats and Birds Directives. Therefore, the Commission decided today to send a letter of formal notice to Romania, giving it one month to take the necessary measures to address the shortcomings identified by the Commission. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to send a reasoned opinion to the Romanian authorities.