EuroNatur and Agent Green report: Massive panic logging in Natura 2000 protected areas

EuroNatur and Agent Green report (PDF in English): Massive panic logging in Natura 2000 protected areas

Bucharest, 1 June 2023 – A report with current data from 16 different locations in Romania owned by the state and private owners shows an alarming impact of logging in Natura 2000 protected forests: Domogled, Maramureș, Făgăraș, Frumoasa and Bârnova.

The forests analysed this year for the report have an average age of 125 years. In all of them, active logging or timber transport was identified, totalling 65355.89 m³ of wood extracted in 2022-2023 by order of the environment minister.

The report produced by Agent Green and EuroNatur highlights the urgent need to improve forest management plans, the assessment of environmental impacts generated by logging, and transparency in decisions on logging in protected areas. Moreover, the organisations conclude in the report that a logging moratorium in protected areas is needed until the Romanian Government aligns forest management with the conservation objectives of Natura 2000 areas and EU environmental laws.

“Europe still has native forests, and Romania’s unique and irreplaceable natural treasure is at risk because of the government’s lack of interest,” said Bruna Campos, Senior Policy Manager at EuroNatur. “Rapid action is needed to stop the current panic logging and protect these primary and old-growth forests in Romania.”

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) and appropriate assessment (AA) are essential for establishing the impact of logging on protected habitats and species, as the EU requires. Yet only one of the 16 sites analysed has an EIA of inadequate quality because the assessment omits the asprete (Romanichthys valsanicola), a critically endangered fish species whose last individuals live along a small stretch of the Vâlsan River in the Făgăraș Mountains.

The investigation found that shelterwood cutting is the most widespread and destructive forestry operation, leading to desolate landscapes and vast cleared areas completely stripped of forest. Shelterwood cutting raises serious concerns about the conservation status of intact habitats and old-growth forests as it stood before logging.

A major concern highlighted in the report is the lack of transparency in forestry. Forest management plans, crucial for monitoring and management, remain censored, with compartment descriptions, forest management maps and planned logging missing from public information.

“Management plans are the basis for transparency. We won in court the publication of all forest management plans (public and private) in Romania, yet the Government keeps them secret in breach of the final court ruling. For this reason, the public cannot genuinely participate in any decision-making or monitoring activity,” said Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

Despite Agent Green’s efforts and the European Commission’s infringement proceedings, Romania’s government has failed to remedy the deficiency. The recent Emergency Ordinance 177/2022 did not take existing forest management plans into account and stipulated that EIA and AA for new forest management plans would only begin in September 2023. Moreover, panic logging continues unabated, in breach of legal obligations.

Agent Green and EuroNatur call on Romania’s government to carry out environmental impact assessments and appropriate assessments for all existing and new forest management plans. Above all, the government must revise forestry rules in Natura 2000 protected areas.

The organisations that produced the report call for a moratorium on logging in protected areas until all forest management plans have the necessary environmental assessments. They stress the need to align Romania’s forestry rules with EU environmental legislation to protect Natura 2000 areas.

Press contacts:

Cătălina Rădulescu, Agent Green lawyer, +40 740 161 116, catalina.radulescu@agentgreen.org

Bruna Campos, Senior Policy Manager, EuroNatur, bruna.campos@euronatur.org