Agent Green press release
Romania’s old-growth forests destroyed as a priority during the European Commission’s investigation 4.7 million m³ of timber illegally extracted from old-growth forests with the Environment Ministry’s approval
Bucharest, 28 November 2024 — Agent Green, EuroNatur and EIA (Environmental Investigation Agency) today submitted to the European Commission the new REPORT IN ENGLISH on the deliberate destruction of Romania’s last primary and old-growth forests. Data collected in 2021-2024 indicate a planned massacre under way before the eyes of the European Commission, which in February 2020 opened infringement case CHAP(2019)02656 against the Environment Ministry for the degradation of protected areas. The infringement proceedings followed the official complaint lodged by Agent Green, EuroNatur and Client Earth in 2019, and the evidence in the report published today has been submitted to the European Commission as part of case CHAP(2019)02656.
“The 4.7 million cubic metres of precious timber felled in the last primary and old-growth forests are equivalent to a bumper-to-bumper line of trucks from Bucharest to Brussels, loaded to capacity with logs. Half of this colossal volume was extracted from protected areas for which Romania faces infringement proceedings,” warns Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.
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Logging affected parcels covering 138,000 hectares where primary and old-growth forests were identified in the PRIMOFARO inventory published in 2019. More than half of these primary and old-growth forests, namely 71,000 ha, were in Natura 2000 protected areas.
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A volume of 4.7 million m³ of trees was removed from parcels overlapping the primary and old-growth forests in the PRIMOFARO inventory. Almost half the volume, namely 2.3 million m³, was extracted from primary and old-growth forests in Natura 2000 protected areas. This situation suggests that protected-area status has no protective effect on forests
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Large-scale logging described in the authorities’ official documents as sanitary and progressive felling has left desolate landscapes completely stripped of forests. Logging took place along new, wide and deep roads using heavy machinery on extremely dangerous slopes, causing severe soil erosion and destabilising hillsides
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Romania is eliminating significant areas of primary and old-growth forests before fulfilling its European obligation to map and strictly protect them
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The last primary forests are being logged throughout the Carpathian range, especially in areas inaccessible to machinery until recently, including protected areas emblematic of Romania: Bucegi Natural Park, Ceahlău National Park, Călimani National Park and Vânători Neamț Natural Park.
