Romania was once seen as a country with a great
\nforestry potential. Today, however, its surface area covered by forests is
\nbelow the European average. The reason is mainly the return of forests that
\nwere abusively seized by the Communist regime and irresponsible logging carried
\nout in the past 25 years. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to Greenpeace, Romania’s forests are being
\ncut at a rate of three hectares per hour.
\nIn the past 10 years, over 280,000 hectares have been deforested and
\ndegraded, out of a total of 6 million hectares of forest. The study conducted
\nby Greenpeace has revealed that almost half of the deforested areas are in
\nprotected areas. What is extremely worrying is that Romania’s virgin forests,
\nconsidered among the largest in Europe, have also been affected. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Against this background, the Ministry of the
\nEnvironment, Waters and Forests and the Romsilva Forestry Authority – the
\nlargest provider of raw material – have been called on to take urgent measures
\nto save Romania’s forests. In 2015 and early this year, the dramatic situation
\nof the Romanian forests led to street protests in Bucharest and across the country,
\nwith thousands of people protesting against the bad management of the country’s
\nforests. Civil society representatives called, among other things, for an
\nexamination of the contracts signed with three Austrian wood-processing
\ncompanies, which run in Romania over one billion Euro worth of business every
\nyear. Because of bad legislation, many irregularities have been committed,
\nwhich have in turn led to the mere blocking of transactions on the wood market.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A first measure aimed at remedying the situation was
\nannounced by the Environment Ministry on Wednesday. The ministry decided to
\nclarify the way in which the reference and starting prices for timber sold in public tenders are established. In Romania, the price of timber sold by the state has
\nbecome higher than in other European countries, and that has caused many
\nproblems, both for the 4,400 exploitation companies and the 7,000 wood
\nprocessing companies in the country. Although the Romanian Government has
\nalready taken some measures to address the situation, it is very likely that
\nthe issue will keep raising questions and fierce debates in Romanian society. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by: M. Ignatescu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Romanian Government has changed the regulations concerning the use of timber originating from public forests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":67174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35584,19347],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-67173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-forests","tag-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n