Romania: economic lobbying stronger than environmental voice

Despite the fact Romania can still be proud of its virgin forests, unspoiled stretches of rivers and the majority of Europe’s bear population, the natural environment in this country is under great pressure, said Magor Csibi, the Programme Manager of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Romania.

Some extracts of an article published in Romania Insider:

“In this context when the world economy is in crisis and most companies have become used to short-term high profits, the behavior of most political and economic players is either hostile or indifferent to the environment,” said Magor Csibi. Also, in his opinion, “the economic lobby is far more powerful compared to the environmental movement”.

One of Romania’s main environmental problems highlighted by the WWF Manager is possible “full disclosure for legal wood cutting” through the new Forest Code currently in Parliament, given that Romania’s forest area is 9 percent below the European average.

Magor Csibi also thinks that the green certificates scheme should be revised and the Romanian authorities should pay more attention when granting permits for construction of small hydropower plants. “A growing number of projects for building small hydropower plants are proposed for approval, most of them in areas with particularly valuable biodiversity, in the middle of protected areas, without taking into account the public utility, the impact on the environment or the efficiency, causing massive destruction in our country’s mountains” he said.

Responsibility is a “must have” of the 21 century, according to Magor Csibi, and companies should admit their role and real impact in society and should also realize that not only the environment is threatened by the lack of responsible policies, but also society and medium and long-term profits.

Read the full article by Irina Popescu, in Romania Insider’s website.

Romania pledges stronger protection for forests

New legislation aims to save the country’s remaining unspoilt forests from destruction at the hands of loggers.

Romania’s Environment Ministry on September 11th adopted new legislation to better protect the country’s forests, which activists say are in danger of being destroyed.

“From now on all 210,000 hectares of virgin forests in Romania will be protected as no more human intervention will be allowed in these areas,” the Environment Minister, Rovana Plumb, pledged.

Environmental activists welcomed the news. “We are happy that the Environment Ministry has taken into consideration our proposals for the better protection of country’s unspoilt forests, which are more vulnerable than ever to socio-economic pressures”, Magor Csibi, from the World Wide Fund for Nature Romania, said.

[…] While the law says all virgin forest should have been included in national and nature parks, in reality this was not the case.

Partly this was because much of this forestry is situated in inaccessible valleys, or on high mountains slopes which are not part of the parks.

Support for Romania’s endangered forests has come from the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales, who recently warned that Romania could end up with huge barren areas like the Highlands of Scotland or like parts of Canada that were also once covered by forest.

“If we carry on the same way we end up with destruction occurring and people saying later on ‘We want this back’“, Prince Charles said.

[…] Romania has around 6.4 million hectares of forest and 120,000 people employed in the forestry sector.

Read full article on Balkan Insight.

WWF campaign gains protection of Romania’s virgin forests

Virgin forests in Romania will receive the status of protected areas and the Ministry of Environment and Forests in Romania will work with WWF to identify, map and protect virgin forests. This is stipulated in the Memorandum of understanding signed by the Minister of Environment and Forests Mr. Laszlo Borbely and WWF two months after the launch of WWF’s campaign aimed at saving Romania’s virgin forests.

“This protocol represents a commitment that next year we will finalize the mapping of virgin forests and include them in a different category, which would give them more protection, so that no human interventions will be permitted in these forests ever again”, said Laszlo Borbely.

“I congratulate WWF for the campaign, for raising over 100,000 signatures in such a short time. This impressed us all”.

More than 100,000 people signed a petition in support of the cause, helping put under protection Romania’s virgin forests, which represent up to 65% of the virgin forests still remaining in Europe, outside of Russia.

The Memorandum of understanding stipulates in detail what actions will be taken to ensure legal protection of Romania’s most important and valuable forests.

“The fate of virgin forests in Romania is now, for a little while, in the hands of the experts. We have a real opportunity to help the authorities prove that they can implement the necessary measures beyond the statement”, said Costel Bucur, Forest Programme Coordinator at WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme in Romania.

“Three important steps need to be taken to speak of real protection of virgin forests: the prohibition of any human intervention, urgently identifying and mapping virgin forests, using clear criteria, and ensuring compensation payments for private forests owners”, Bucur said.

To solve the problem of compensations, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and WWF Romania intend to submit a proposal to the European Commission to include compensation payments for virgin forests owners in the programming period 2014 – 2020. In the short term, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and WWF Romania will identify alternative financial mechanisms to compensate virgin forests owners.

According to the Memorandum of understanding, representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Forests will meet with WWF quarterly to review the state of implementation of the protocol. WWF Romania will participate with expertise in drafting legislative documents and mapping virgin forests, the cost of providing this service being a minimum of 100,000 Euros.

“With this Memorandum of understanding, we guarantee to obtain protection for the 13,000 living species in virgin forests and, perhaps more importantly, we prove that ordinary people can change our country. The authorities have today recognized the voice of the community. Right now, we have reasons to celebrate, but starting tomorrow we must continue to act as a united community, turning our attention to other issues, equally important“, said Magor Csibi, Country Manager of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme in Romania.

Virgin or old growth forests are untouched by humans, the last places where nature survives in its pure state. They are wonderful complex systems where seedlings, young, mature and old trees are interspersed by very large, old live, imposing trees. Dead trees and decaying logs are just as important as the living trees, building up together an environment that is home for many different flora and fauna. Virgin forests are an important part of Europe’s natural patrimony and were lost mostly due to bad management. Their scientific, educational, and ecological value is undisputed.

Source : WWF Romania