By Miruna Bărdulete
About 27 per cent of Romania’s territory is covered by forests – this is less than the European average (32-35 per cent). But this is not the main problem of Romania’s forests, the main problem is the illegal deforestation that cannot be controlled by Romanian institutions due to corruption issues.
Between the years 1990-2011, 350,000 hectares of forests were illegally cut in Romania, and this the official number according to a a report from the Romanian Court of Editors. In the first semester of 2013 only, there were also 8 million Euro’s worth of illegal cuts. The employees of Romsilva, the institution that is in charge of watching over the forests, were caught stealing. Some mayors are involved, some politicians too. It just got out of control.
Daciana Sarbu, an MEP from Romania and member of the Committee on the Environment, says that the national control system is not solid enough to discourage the illegal cuts. ”The national measures should be simple- clear and firm rules, sanctions and fines”, she explains. However, it is not a reality so far.
Ignacio de la Flor, Forests and Bioenergy Campaigner of FERN (an international organisation that keeps track of the EU’s involvement in forests) explains that Romania is the one that should solve its own problem: the European Union doesn’t have and never has had a common policy on forests.
„The countries can do with their forest what they want. There are policies that have an influence on these decisions: each country has some designated areas (selected with the NATURA 2000 programme) that have to be subjected to some rules, but those small areas only”.
According to the Romanian press, some of the wood that was illegally cut here was then exported. In this case, the European Union could take some measures about it because, according to the EU Timber Regulation 995/2010, it is forbidden to place on the market wood that was illegally cut.
Ignacio de la Flor considers that the problem should be raised in the European Parliament and maybe the EU should take some action: ”But again, the countries don’t want the EU to regulate their rules”, he adds.
According to a report by Greenpeace, 3 hectares of forest are cut in Romania per hour. And the consequences of that will be observed in the future: forests provide us with water of good quality, they prevent floods and they perform an important social function for human communities.
„Romania is losing. And the whole of Europe is losing. Because we are all interconnected. We depend on the biodiversity for our living and if that disappears, we have a problem. If we keep overexploiting our resources, there will be a moment when they will be gone. Just like that.”, Ignacio de la Flor adds.
Photo from Romanian Forest by Sorin Onisor
