European Commission Demands Action Against Illegal Logging in Romania

Romania’s once-pristine forests face decimation at the hands of illegal loggers. (Pxfuel)

The European Commission announced sanctions against Romania on February 12 and threatened it with legal action for failing to tackle illegal logging and protect some of Europe's largest unspoiled forests. 

“Inconsistencies in the national legislation do not allow Romanian authorities to check large amounts of illegally harvested timber,” the Commission wrote in a letter of formal notice. It found that the “Romanian authorities manage forests, including by authorising logging, without evaluating beforehand the impacts on protected habitats as required under the Habitats Directive and Strategic Environmental Assessment Directives” and that “protected forest habitats have been lost,” breaching directives. The Commission also pointed out the difficulty for members of the public to access information on Romania’s forest management plans. 

Romania was given one month to take appropriate measures to address the identified problems and properly implement the EU Timber Regulation to prevent illegally harvested wood from entering the European Union market before the Commission announces further sanctions.

Romanian Environment Minister Costel Alexe blamed the previous government for the situation. “The [European Commission’s decision] hasn't been made over night, the decision has been made after the European Commission waited three years regarding this topic… [as] the only method intentionally enforced by those who led the previous Government and ministry was to endlessly postpone the implementation of some solutions which would have truly limited and stopped the illegal logging in Romania,” Alexe said. 

The minister also mentioned that SUMAL, an automatic system that tracks wood materials, will be implemented by the end of July 2020.

Forests cover seven million hectares, or almost one-third of Romania, and more than 525,000 hectares of them are virgin primary forests. These forests contain ancient and protected tree species and are home to a variety of wildlife, including bears, wolves, and lynx. While there has been no dramatic decline in forest surface, illegal logging remains a major problem for the country. Illegal loggers are willing to use alarming levels of violence in Romania to steal wood—six forest rangers have been killed in recent years, and 650 forest workers have been beaten, attacked with sharp weapons, or shot at while trying to catch illegal loggers.

In 2019, after two forest workers were killed within two months, thousands of Romanians marched in Bucharest to demand action against illegal logging. However, the actual situation is more complicated. The timber industry, estimated to be worth more than €6 billion euros ($6.6 billion), is one of the main sources of income for a large part of the population, and authorities have consistently turned a blind eye to the illegal timber trade until last year, when the current government launched a crackdown. Yet the illegal logging network remains deeply embedded in society, sustaining entire communities and filling the pockets of people at every level, from state forestry bosses to local rangers to poor villagers.

Not all forest rangers are protagonists in the story. One ranger said, in an anonymous interview, that “absolutely everyone” is complicit in illegal activities when asked if he knew of colleagues doing so.

Acknowledging the complexity of the illicit economy, Alexe said in an interview that “everybody loses: we are losing the forest, we lose as citizens, and the budget loses a huge amount of money.” He plans to change the current system in which companies bid for areas of forests that they are allowed to log in, to one that allows for the selling of wood directly as timber, a policy that has been advocated by green activists for a long time.