The forests of Iași saved from logging in Agent Green’s case against Romsilva and the Environment Ministry

The forests of Iași, saved from logging in Agent Green’s case against Romsilva and the Environment Ministry

Forestry operations continue in breach of the Bucharest Court of Appeal’s decision

Iași, 14 July 2021 – On 2 July 2021, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled in favour of claimant Agent Green in its case against defendants Romsilva, the Environment Ministry and the Iași Environmental Protection Agency. The area covered by the ruling is a record for Romania, with logging now prohibited on 19,232 hectares managed by Romsilva through the Dobrovăț and Lunca Cetățuii forest districts. Nevertheless, Romsilva is ignoring the court’s decision and continuing the forestry operations under the suspended forest management plans. Agent Green footage recorded between 3 and 13 July 2021 in the forest districts concerned demonstrates that forestry operations continue, although the court’s decision leaves no room for interpretation. Agent Green investigators tried to speak both to representatives of the logging companies and to representatives of Romsilva and the Forest Guard.

VIDEO (For free distribution, crediting “Agent Green” as the source):

The Court of Appeal’s decision suspending the forest management plans:

http://portal.just.ro/2/SitePages/Dosar.aspx?id_dosar=200000000390819&id_inst=2

Previously, on 24 May, Agent Green had also won the case concerning the suspension of the administrative acts: http://portal.just.ro/2/SitePages/Dosar.aspx?id_dosar=300000000920154&id_inst=2

“From the moment of the court’s decision, felling, hauling, processing and transporting timber are no longer permitted. Even marking new trees for felling is no longer allowed. Everything cut here was illegal, and it continues. It is now for the Prime Minister’s inspection body and the police to stop these unlawful activities,” said Cătălina Rădulescu, Agent Green’s lawyer.

Only 1% of the area of the protected sites where the court suspended logging was strictly protected; the remaining 99% had been made available for logging by Romsilva with the Environment Ministry’s approval. Recently, logging has taken place even in the last plots of centuries-old forest with an average age of 120-160 years. The Environment Ministry approved the logging of more than 750,000 cubic metres of timber for the current decade without appropriate and strategic assessment studies. In the absence of these mandatory assessments, the court ruled in Agent Green’s favour, and the European Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Romania. The proceedings are expected to lead to severe sanctions to be determined by the European Court of Justice during this year.

“We are talking about a protected natural area of which only 1% is actually protected. It is a national disgrace. We ask the Environment Ministry to increase the strictly protected area to at least 50% of the area of the protected sites and establish a new natural park here,” said Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

The area was designated a site of Community importance by Environment and Sustainable Development Ministry Order No.1964 of 13 December 2007 as an integral part of Romania’s European Natura 2000 ecological network for habitats and birds. It is a natural area (deciduous forests, transitional forests, pastures, meadows, arable land and streams tributary to the Bârlad valley) within the continental bioregion of the Central Moldavian Plateau, sheltering and conserving a diverse range of spontaneous flora and wildlife. The natural area has two natural habitat types (Asperulo-Fagetum beech forests and Dacian oak and hornbeam forests), providing food and living conditions for several species of small mammals, birds and insects and protecting rare flora. Inexplicably, the ministry completely forgot that, by its own order, Bârnova became a special bird protection area 13 years ago. Consequently, the area has no management plan, and logging has been approved that will deprive precisely the bird species for which the protected area was designated of their habitat.

Agent Green asks the Romanian Police and Gendarmerie to ensure compliance with the Court of Appeal’s decision and the Prime Minister’s inspection body to investigate the Iași case.

The organisation also asks the Environment Ministry to:

1. Increase the strictly protected area within the Bârnova-Repedea Natura 2000 protected areas from 1% to at least 50% by placing it in functional category T I. The rest of the protected areas must be placed in functional category T II.
2. Establish the protected area of national interest “Bârnova – Repedea Natural Park”, overlapping the Bârnova – Repedea protected areas of European interest. The Natural Park will correspond to IUCN category V.
3. Abandon plans to build new forest roads. The four forest roads under construction have neither an environmental opinion nor an appropriate environmental assessment. They are planned exclusively for massive logging in areas of high biodiversity and have no place in a Natura 2000 site. The current forest road network is sufficient for intervention in natural disasters or to save human lives (tourists).

Findings report for the protected areas ROSPA0092 Pădurea Bârnova and ROSCI0135 Pădurea Bârnova–Repedea (PDF in Romanian), here.

Press contact:

Cătălina Rădulescu, 0745138165, catalina.radulescu@gmail.com