A major ideal becomes reality: Environment Ministry announces protection for national parks

A major ideal becomes reality: Environment Ministry announces protection for national parks

Agent Green welcomes the announcement and offers its full support for this endeavour of global interest

Bucharest, 10 January – Agent Green welcomes the Environment Ministry’s decision to begin procedures for the strict protection of Romania’s 13 national parks and alignment with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) principles. The announced change is to begin in Domogled – Valea Cernei National Park, the largest and also the most affected by logging.

“Genuine protection of national parks is probably the longest-running campaign we have conducted, which we began 16 years ago. For the first time, Romania is sending a clear, strong signal towards alignment with the 3 universal principles under which national parks are managed: non-intervention, support for local communities, and ensuring they have nothing to lose but, on the contrary, something to gain,” said Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

The will of local communities is essential: without it, IUCN cannot endorse any national park. Unfortunately, in Romania, local communities were not genuinely involved when protected areas were established, which is why they mostly view national parks as a threat rather than an opportunity. Generally, throughout the world, national parks have added value for local communities that united in a joint partnership of product and service providers under a single local brand associated with the natural environment. These communities have come to depend literally on ecotourism associated with strictly protected nature and have consequently become its local guardians.

The ministry’s conservation-oriented approach takes account of the wishes of 90% of Romanians who, in the latest opinion POLL (PDF in Romanian), reiterated their support for strictly protecting national parks.

“National parks cover only 1% of the country’s area, but they are the most precious category of protected areas, harbouring the most valuable geological features and functioning ecosystems. The cleanest water springs originate here. The purest air comes from here. These forests mitigate the negative impact of climate change and provide a place for recreation. Here, where nature follows its course, we can learn how to care better for the country’s other forests, where climate change is beginning to wreak havoc. These are the country’s only areas where, in theory, chainsaws and gunshots are not heard,” Păun added.

The ministry’s announcement comes 2 weeks after, at the other end of the Carpathians, Slovakia’s president, Zuzana Caputova, signed the decree reforming national parks, which will enter into force on 15 January. “Synchronised or not, the reforms in Romania and Slovakia come at the 12th hour and are crucial to saving the biodiversity of the Carpathians, ultimately the same ecosystem,” Păun also said.

To draw attention to national-park degradation, Agent Green has consistently exposed the attacks on them since 2009 and pursued numerous court cases. Although many tens of thousands of hectares have been degraded, others have been saved in their entirety. Even degraded areas will have a chance to return to a more natural state in just a few decades if the ministry completes its current endeavour and allows natural processes to unfold without human intervention. To illustrate the phenomenon, the organisation also produced 5 documentary films in 2017-2019:

Domogled – Valea Cernei National Park

Semenic – Cheile Carașului National Park

Cheile Nerei – Beușnița National Park

Călimani National Park

Munții Rodnei National Park

Agent Green announces its full support for the Environment Ministry’s effort to ensure genuine national-park protection and improve local communities’ wellbeing by promoting ecotourism.

Video illustration (unedited footage) for the press, free to use provided “Agent Green” is credited:

Further information on national parks

CURRENT SITUATION

• Logging takes precedence over protection and conservation. Large-scale commercial logging serves major companies, while local communities do not have enough wood even for heating
• Logging takes place even in virgin, centuries-old and naturally structured forests within national parks
• Romania’s national parks do not follow international scientific recommendations (IUCN), either in their central non-intervention areas, which are too small and scattered, or in their buffer zones, where large-scale commercial logging takes place

The Romanian Carpathians are in a markedly inferior state of degradation compared with before becoming national parks. In practice, current national-park management plans are really plans for exploiting and systematically degrading intact forest ecosystems. In parks without approved management plans, there is total chaos. Logging even takes place in nature reserves within national parks.

WHAT ARE NATIONAL PARKS IN ROMANIA?

National Parks are protected natural areas whose objectives are to protect and conserve territories representative of the national biogeographical space, encompassing natural features of outstanding physical-geographical, floristic, faunal, hydrological, geological, palaeontological, speleological, soil-related or other value, while allowing visits for scientific, educational, recreational and tourist purposes.

National-park management should maintain the physical-geographical environment in its natural state, protect ecosystems, conserve genetic resources and biological diversity under conditions of ecological stability, and prevent and exclude all forms of natural-resource exploitation and land uses incompatible with the assigned purpose. Within national parks, only traditional activities practised by communities in the national-park area are allowed, and these activities are to be regulated by the management plan.

National parks correspond to IUCN category II, “National park: protected area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation”.
*Extract from Emergency Ordinance 25/2007

WHAT IS IUCN, AND WHAT DOES IT RECOMMEND TO THE WORLD’S STATES ABOUT NATIONAL PARKS?

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is an international organisation founded in October 1948, dedicated to conserving natural resources in 1948, and headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva. IUCN brings together 83 states, 108 government agencies, 766 non-governmental organisations and around 10,000 experts and scientists from countries worldwide.

IUCN is the best-known protected-area classification system, partially adopted with modifications in Romania too. Following discussions and consultations in this field, six protected-area categories were established in the ‘90s and are currently valid worldwide:

Category Ia – strict nature reserve (scientific reserve in Romania)

Category Ib – wilderness area (this category does not exist in Romania)

Category II – national park (same in Romania)

Category III – outstanding natural monument (natural monument)

Category IV – habitat/species management area (nature reserve in Romania)

Category V – protected landscape/seascape (nature park in Romania)

Category VI – protected area with sustainable use of natural resources (this category does not exist in Romania)

Category II: National park

Definition: Category II protected areas are large natural or near-natural areas established to protect large-scale ecological processes, together with the species and ecosystems characteristic of the area, which also provide a foundation for environmentally and culturally compatible spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational or tourist visits.

Primary objective

To protect natural biodiversity together with its underlying ecological structure and supporting environmental processes, and to promote education and recreation.

Other objectives:

• To manage the area to perpetuate, in as natural a state as possible, representative examples of physiographic regions, biotic communities, genetic resources and unimpaired natural processes;
• To maintain viable and ecologically functional populations and assemblages of native species at densities sufficient to conserve ecosystem integrity and long-term resilience;
• To contribute particularly to conserving wide-ranging species, regional ecological processes and migration routes;
• To manage visitor use for inspirational, educational, cultural and recreational purposes at a level that will not cause significant biological or ecological degradation of natural resources;
• To take account of the needs of indigenous people and local communities, including subsistence resource use, insofar as this will not adversely affect the primary management objective;
• To contribute to the local economy through tourism.
• Distinctive features: Category II areas are usually large and conserve a functioning “ecosystem”, although this may require the protected area to be complemented by appropriate management of surrounding areas.
• The area should contain representative examples of major natural regions and biological, environmental or landscape features where native plant and animal species, habitats and geodiversity sites have particular spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational or tourist significance.
• The area must be of sufficient size and ecological quality to maintain the ecological functions and processes that allow native species and communities to persist over the long term with minimal management intervention.
• The composition, structure and function of biodiversity should largely be in a “natural” state or have the potential to return to it, with a relatively low risk of invasion by non-native species.

APPLYING THE IUCN PROTECTED-AREA CATEGORIES

The primary management objective should be applicable to at least three quarters of the protected area.

The primary objective must apply to at least three quarters of the protected area – the 75 percent RULE: many protected areas may contain specific zones where other uses are permitted, for example:

• Tourist lodges and campsites in category II national parks, as in many protected areas in the African savannahs;
• Villages remaining within strictly protected areas, for example the hamlets of Ineleț and Prisăcina in Domogled – Valea Cernei National Park
• Small fully and strictly protected areas within what is a managed category V cultural landscape, for example the National Trust’s woodlands in Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales, United Kingdom;
• Areas where fishing is permitted within otherwise strictly protected marine or freshwater areas, for example Kosi Bay Nature Reserve in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

IUCN recognises these cases and recommends that up to 25 percent of the land or water in a protected area may be managed for other purposes, provided these are compatible with the protected area’s primary objective. In some cases, those 25 percent may shift: for example, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda allows local communities to gather medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products in specially designated zones that change from time to time so species are not collected too intensively.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ON NATIONAL PARKS

Commercial logging is incompatible with and not permitted in category II national parks.

Only interventions at the park edge, not to be understood as logging, are permitted to prevent or combat diseases in forest ecosystems that may spread into private forests.

In the event of natural disasters or infestations, no human interventions are carried out because nature knows best how to protect itself and evolve naturally. Human interventions most often create new ecosystem imbalances.

In all developed or underdeveloped countries, national parks are a source of pride and drive tourism development, with an important financial contribution to local and regional communities.

In most countries, national parks serve to protect natural resources in their entirety, and commercial logging is prohibited.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ROMANIA’S NATIONAL PARKS?

A total of 13 national parks of national interest have been designated, occupying 1.33% of the country’s area and 3.31% of its forested area: Călimani, Cheile Bicazului – Hășmaș, Munții Rodnei, Piatra Craiului, Cozia, Buila Vânturarița, Retezat, Defileul Jiului, Domogled – Valea Cernei, Semenic – Cheile Carașului, Nera – Beușnița, Ceahlău and Munții Măcinului. Of these, Cozia is the most forested park, while Retezat has the smallest forest area, with more than half consisting of alpine meadows and glacial areas. Forests in Romania’s national parks cover a total of 233,892.78 hectares, or 0.99% of the country’s area.

Only one national park (Defileul Jiului) is managed as a national park by applying the primary objective to at least 75% of its area, in accordance with national legislation and the IUCN management category.

All national parks show a trend of accelerating ecosystem degradation, felling of virgin and old-growth forests, habitat fragmentation and soil erosion.

In most national parks, the urbanisation of certain areas for buildings, roads and networks has been expanded and legalised.

Commercial logging takes place even in reserves in several parks.

Non-intervention zones cover around 50% of a park’s area, are scattered and do not form a core area. They generally include rocky areas, young forests and meadows, and exclude virgin and old-growth forests so these can be logged.

Management plans and internal zoning were drawn up under the influence, pressure and decisions of RNP Romsilva officials with an interest in logging (for example Domogled-Valea Cernei and Cheile Nerei-Beușnița National Parks), or under the influence of private landowners such as the Carpathia Foundation (for example Piatra Craiului National Park).

In a few parks, the administrators themselves (RNP-Romsilva) initiated efforts to abolish or relocate reserves within national parks.

National-park administrations are economic operators (autonomous public enterprises) whose main activity is: 0210 Silviculture and other forestry activities.

The administrations are underfunded, lack national coordination, follow inconsistent practices and are inefficient in conservation and resource use.

Endorsement or visitor fees are charged arbitrarily/differently, affecting competition among economic operators in the parks.

The administrations’ activities lack transparency and are abusive in many cases.

National-park and reserve boundaries were drawn or changed according to economic and political interests rather than scientific criteria.

Local communities do not benefit from commercially harvested timber, which mostly goes to foreign processing companies that, over the past 15 years, have developed processing capacities exceeding the legally harvestable volume nationwide

Numerous areas of Romania could scientifically have been designated national parks (Țarcu Mountains, Făgăraș Mountains, etc.), yet they are not even considered. The Environment Ministry rejects the scientific designation proposals on political grounds, although the Romanian Academy endorsed them.

AGENT GREEN CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

Apply the primary non-intervention purpose and objective in accordance with national legislation and the criteria and recommendations of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Transfer unified and effective administration of all national parks to the State within ANANP (National Agency for Natural Protected Areas)

Fund national-park administration from the State budget, in accordance with Emergency Ordinance 57/2007, Art. 30 (2)

Adjust national-park boundaries on scientific grounds to include adjacent virgin/centuries-old forests or entire ecosystems (for example Coșava Mică in Semenic or Câmpușel in Retezat)

Computerise protected-area administration and management through the SINCRON application

Restructure Scientific Councils so they consist exclusively of independent researchers and university staff with moral integrity

Identify funding sources for the Romanian State to purchase private land within national parks where owners voluntarily wish to sell

Provide compensation for private owners of forests and meadows within national parks

Incorporate the IUCN categories into national legislation as formulated, together with other recommendations of international organisations

Establish new national parks (for example Munții Făgăraș National Park and Munții Țarcu National Park)