Protest in Semenic and at the national park administration’s headquarters in Reșița

Agent Green calls on the Environment Ministry to remove Romsilva from management immediately

Reșița, 16 December 2022 – Agent Green is protesting today in Semenic – Cheile Carașului National Park and at the park administration’s headquarters in Reșița to draw the Environment Ministry’s attention to the need to remove Romsilva from leadership, as it has continuously breached its contractual obligations to protect the park over the last 18 years. In a clear-cut area in the heart of the park, the organisation’s volunteers unfurled a 96-square-metre banner reading: “Environment Ministry: STOP LOGGING IN NATIONAL PARKS”. The protest continued at the park administration’s headquarters in the Reșița forestry directorate building, where activists displayed banners reading: “SAVE SEMENIC FROM ROMSILVA”, “ROMSILVA, GAME OVER” and “STRICTLY PROTECT SEMENIC NATIONAL PARK”.

Also today, Agent Green is taking Romsilva, the Environment Ministry and ANANP (National Agency for Protected Areas) to court at the Bucharest Tribunal to terminate the contract for managing Semenic – Cheile Carașului National Park, concluded for a 10-year period in 2004. The contract expired in 2014, and Romsilva was required within two years, meaning in 2006, to prepare and implement a management plan for conserving the national park. A plan was never approved, allowing the park to be degraded parcel by parcel through brutal logging even in the reserves within it: Cheile Carașului, Bârzăvița and Buhui Marghitaș. Logging in the reserves was facilitated by Romsilva’s falsification of their boundaries, although they had been precisely mapped through the Inspire project. Furthermore, a forest management plan was recently approved for Văliug Forest District that provides for logging throughout the Bârzăvița reserve, although Agent Green, Asociația Altitudine and the Forest Guard had requested its inclusion under strict protection in writing when the new forest management plan was being prepared.

In 2013–2018 alone, Romsilva collected at least 13 million euros from logging over 230,000 cubic metres of timber in the park, equivalent to an old-growth forest of over 700 hectares that has disappeared, or a line of lorries full of logs stretching from Bucharest to Sinaia.

Three members of the Scientific Council, including the park’s biologist, who dared to oppose logging, were terrorised and intimidated by the park administration until they had to resign.

Teodora Sînculeț, the park’s former biologist: “During my 14 years as a biologist at the Semenic National Park administration, I did everything possible to give this park the largest possible area of strict and integral protection. This was not wanted, and it is still not wanted today. Over those 14 years, 24 versions of the management plan were drawn up; reserve boundaries were illegally changed to suit the interests of Romsilva’s people, especially the head of biodiversity, precisely to allow logging; firm and clear measures were never taken against those who built illegally, those who set grasslands on fire, or those who vandalised forest, peatland, cave or aquatic habitats. Unfortunately, the administration has operated from 2004 to the present without a management plan, with an inert Scientific Council and an administration that exists in name only. Through its biodiversity leadership, Romsilva removed people interested in protection and promoted mediocrity, servility and superficiality. I wonder who will pay for all these illegalities. I want Semenic to become a benchmark for ecosystem protection and to be administered by ANANP.”

Furthermore, on 3 May 2018, ANANP president Razvan Fazakas sent RNP Romsilva notice of termination of the management contract for breaching Article 4.1(n) and Article 8(c) of the administration contract. Those articles state that the absence of a valid management plan renders the contract null. Two days later, the environment minister replaced ANANP’s director, and Romsilva continues to manage and log Semenic National Park.

“The Romsilva – Environment Ministry – ANANP triangle is a mafia-type network infiltrated by timber thieves that must be exposed, purged and replaced with natural science specialists,” warns Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

Forests in Romania’s 13 national parks cover just 0.9% of Romania’s territory and are the most prestigious type of protected natural area worldwide. Strict protection is applied in them for species conservation and ecotourism, but Romania is an exception and supports ordinary logging operations.

“As long as national parks have that name only on paper, Romania’s chance to protect species and prosper through ecotourism is cancelled out. We are protesting to save what remains and to keep alive the chance of having national parks that people can visit,” Păun concluded.

Agent Green is willing to drop its lawsuit against Romsilva, the Environment Ministry and ANANP if, within no more than one month, the administration of Semenic – Cheile Carașului National Park is changed and the park is strictly protected. The organisation also calls for the national park to be expanded by including the Coșava Mică virgin forest (saved by Agent Green in 2015) and the forests east of the UNESCO Izvoarele Nerei reserve, where there are virgin forests and old-growth beech forests similar to those included in UNESCO World Heritage. Following reports by Asociația Altitudine and Agent Green, some of these forests were saved in 2018–2019 and included in the catalogue of virgin forests, while numerous other parcels were deliberately damaged by logging and skidder tracks.

Press contact:

Cătălina Rădulescu, 0745138165, office@agentgreen.org