90% of Romanians want logging banned in national parks, while Romsilva scores a failing 3.80 for forest management

National opinion survey results, 2015 compared with 2021:

90% of Romanians want logging banned in national parks Romsilva scored 3.80 for forest management and is failing

Bucharest, 25 May 2021 – Agent Green today publishes the results of the new nationwide survey conducted by Mercury Research on Romanians’ environmental concerns, particularly national parks and who should care for them.

The study compares results with 2015, when the same provider of official studies conducted another survey using an identical methodology. Among the main findings:

• People’s views on the biggest environmental problem have remained almost unchanged since 2015, except for excessive waste, considered the biggest problem by 18% of the population in 2021 compared with 7% in 2015
• Excessive forest logging is still perceived as the most important environmental problem by approximately 42% of Romanians
• Romsilva’s forest management is still considered poor, although the average quality score has risen to 3.80 out of 10, compared with 2015, when it was rated 3.42
• Whereas in 2015 people preferred national parks to be managed by ecologists and foresters, in 2021 that preference also extended to biologists and geologists, with ecology specialists ranking highest (93%)
• As in 2015, 90% of people believe logging in national parks should rather be banned completely
• Nature protection and conservation institutions, NGOs and local authorities are people’s preferred options for managing natural and national parks

FULL STUDY

Mercury forest study report RO 2021 (PDF in Romanian)

“The essence of Romanians’ wishes is that logging in national parks must be banned completely and that these parks must be managed by natural science specialists. The general public has judged Romsilva’s performance in national parks harshly and implicitly recommends expelling them. The Environment Minister can no longer defend them and must act accordingly now. Throughout the world, national parks are strictly protected. In Romania, their forests cover only 1% of the country, yet more than half of this small area is open to logging,” said Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

Agent Green has produced an overview of the state of national parks, available here: national parks

Although Romanians’ opinion is perfectly clear, Romsilva recently decided to spend public money suing Agent Green for defamatory actions allegedly carried out in 2015-2021. One action, in virgin forests devastated in the Ciucaș Mountains, belonged to Greenpeace, not Agent Green as Romsilva claims.

“It is clear that Romsilva’s poor reputation has nothing to do with Agent Green’s activities. But it is outrageous that they use public money to drag us through the courts. We will use this study in court and ask Romsilva to pay the costs of producing it,” Păun added.

Through the series “Un Masacru Național”, the organisation also exposed the deplorable state of 5 national parks managed by Romsilva: Semenic, Domogled, Cheile Nerei, Călimani and Rodna. The series is available here for free distribution: