Half of Europe’s last ancient forests are to be found in Romania. At a time when much is said about the Amazon being the lung of the planet, few of us know that Europe has its own. In the Carpathian Mountains, made famous by Bram Stoker’s novel « Dracula », there is even a primary forest untouched by man and home to an exceptional fauna. Here there are no vampires, but the largest population of bears, wolves and lynx in Europe. But all of that is threatened by unauthorised deforestation. Since 2013, 9 hectares of these forests have been razed every hour (the equivalent of 9 football fields), half of that illegally. Every year, 20 million cubic metres of wood disappear in Romania. The Romanian authorities only manage to recover 1% of the illegally cut wood. Behind these illegal cuts is a thriving mafia. And all its means are used to deforest as it sees fit: the corruption of elites and forest rangers and taking the law into its own hands. Since 2014, 170 rangers have been attacked, and 6 have even been killed in Romania. Last autumn two of them were found dead near the forest they were defending. Their colleague Jiva Sorin dares to speak up: he was shot at in March 2017 for denouncing two traffickers. He confides his despair: his attackers have been sentenced to eight years in prison, but they are still at large because the legal system is too lax. Everyone is involved in this trafficking, estimated at one billion Euros. « The money from illegal logging fuels corruption, from the lowest level, that of the rangers who collect the bribes, up to the highest, that of the politicians, » says Mihai Gotiu, a former investigative journalist who became a senator for Union Save Romania (USR). This political system has developed above all « with local barons, such as the presidents of the departmental councils who choose candidates for the main public posts, mayors, deputies, members of government. They draw their power from money linked to the plundering of public wealth, » says Mihai Gotiu.
These killings caused emotion in Romania and led to a mobilisation against timber trafficking. Thanks to that a nature defence association managed a coup. Client Earth is fighting in the legal field. It has a major victory to its credit in Europe: stopping the felling of trees in another European primary forest, the Bialowieza forest in Poland. Last year, Client Earth’s lawyers won a first battle: they forced the Romanian government to create a special court to protect its forests: the Environmental Crimes Investigation Directorate (DIIM). Dubbed « DNA for the forest » in reference to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, made famous in the country for bringing down many heads, this independent judicial entity will be able to deal with illegal deforestation, pollution or waste. In France this would be equivalent to a « national forest prosecutor ». The bill has been met with political reluctance. « This is the main problem: the opposition of a large part of the political class that wants to continue to benefit from deforestation, » deplores Senator Mihai Gotiu.
In September 2019, following the killings of the two rangers, Client Earth applied to Europe to force Romania to comply with the directives of the Natura 2000 Zones. The plea in favour of the Carpathian forest was heard by the European Commission. Last February, Brussels launched legal action against Romania. The reason: logging in these Natura 2000 protected areas is done without the assessment of impact, although that is mandatory before any authorisation. Infringement proceedings have started against the country, with the threat of financial sanctions. Client Earth’s lawyer, Ewelina Tylec-Bakalar, is pleased: « The destruction of Romania’s forests is a huge systemic problem that goes far beyond the illegal logging in the Polish forest of Bialowieza, which was the basis of our legal challenge three years ago. By starting infringement proceedings against Romania, the European Commission is sending a clear signal that it is taking this problem very seriously. That’s an important warning!” With Ewelina Tylec-Bakalar we will return to Maramures, the site in the forest where Liviu Pop, the forest ranger, was recently killed. Drone images allow us to measure these illegal cuts: the ground is bare on an area of 3700 hectares and now looks like a huge battlefield, larger than the city of Brussels. The Romanian NGOs have documented the situation in a total of 10,000 hectares of forest, and regret that the situation is completely out of control. The cuts continue and Romania
