During August, Greenpeace volunteers from all over Europe (Romania, Austria, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia, Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland) will be setting up a Romanian Forest Rescue Station in the Carpathian Mountains to map one of the last remaining ancient and old growth forests in Europe in order to highlight the need for the Romanian government to legally protect the forest.

The volunteers will be based in a station near Vidraru Lake, in the Argeș river basin, an area threatened by illegal logging and forest destruction. They will assess whether the forests in the Vidraru area still qualify, applying the official criteria for ancient forests but also documenting signs of their destruction. This includes implementing a toolkit to identify illegal forestry related interventions. Documented violations will be reported to the authorities via a new Greenpeace website www.salvezpadurea.ro.

This Greenpeace inventory will contribute the very starting point of the Romanian National Catalogue of Ancient and Old-growth Forests, which is needed to ensure that this valuable European heritage is protected for our own and future generations benefit.

Rich forests under threat

All ancient forests are of crucial importance for the eco-systemic services they provide, sheltering rich biodiversity and endangered species and also offering high resilience to climate change. Nevertheless, they are not effectively protected by Romanian law and thus under threat by illegal and even legal logging.

Ancient beech forest in Bucegi Mountains, Romania. Photo credit: Greenpeace Romania

Additionally, there has been no recent inventory of the remaining ancient forests to demarcate them for future protection mechanisms. Timber companies are taking advantage of the weak – or non-existing – legislation, and are exploiting the last remaining primary forests of Europe.

Romanian Government is taking steps in the right direction

On July 11th, Forest Minister Cristiana Pașca-Palmer, set the legal frame for the protection of the last remaining ancient forests in the country. The objective of the ministerial order is to identify all remaining forests that correspond to these criteria, protect them strictly and permanently and include them in a public register, the National Catalogue of Primary and Old-growth Forests. Anyone can submit a claim for the inclusion of an eligible forest to the Catalogue.

But to properly protect these forests, we need to do more.

Greenpeace demands from Romanian Ministry to:
1. Impose a moratorium on any kind of interventions in Romania`s ancient and old-growth forests.
2. Urgently initiate and coordinate a national inventory project of all ancient and old-growth forests that are left.
3. Urgently register all forests identified as potential nomination areas for the World Heritage List in the Catalogue.