Forest updates from Romania

Posted on 10 May 2023
WWF-Romania shares their recent activities in forest conservation and advocacy.

 

NEWS ON THE WOOD TRACKING SYSTEM SUMAL

Coming soon: a new WWF monitoring report on SUMAL’s efficiency

The photos timber transporters upload to SUMAL are many times irrelevant and „trick” the system which is not designed to check them, shows a new WWF monitoring report based on public information existing on the Forest Inspector platform. That is why we think Romania should implement modern tools, such as the digital footprint of wood transports. The detailed report will be made public in May. To this end, we organized a meeting with representatives of the National Forestry Guard, the authority responsible for controlling activities in the forest, where we discussed the preliminary results. The monitoring activity took place between 20 February  - 29 March 2023. 

SEE THE ARTICLE

Right time to close the gaps in SUMAL

The tools that the Environment Ministry is currently developing to “fully implement SUMAL” are essential and the success of the reform to fight illegal logging, set up by the National Strategy for Forests (SNP 30), depends on them. That’s why, at the beginning of this month, we sent a letter to the Environment Ministry in which we suggested a few elements to be included into the Government Decision that rules how the European money within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) will be allocated in order to increase Romania’s capacity to supervise, control and monitor its forests through an integrated IT system.

READ THE ANALYIS

 


FOREST LEGISLATION 

What the law that protects our forests should include

After failing to allocate European funds for forests within the National Strategic Plan (PNS), we have to protect our forests by using national money. In this context, the Government Decision which gives compensations to forest owners who cannot harvest wood because of protection restrictions established by the forest management, is necessary. Besides the positive aspects it includes, such as establishing how the beneficiaries are selected, the amount of the compensation payment and how the whole process is controlled, there are some elements that the GD draft does not take into account and which should be included.

READ WWF'S LETTER TO ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY

Last lap for the new Forestry Code

The draft of the new Forestry Code and of the model that structures the subsequent forestry legislation is in the last lap and must be finalized by the end of May. WWF monitors and is actively engaged in this process as a stakeholder. We sent our opinion following an extensive questionnaire developed by the project team, where we highlighted the main elements we believe the new Forestry Code should contain.

SEE THE QUESTIONNAIRE COMPLETED BY WWF


OLD-GROWTH FORESTS AND PROTECTED AREAS

More protected old-growth forests

We included additional 636 hectares of forests from Hunedoara County in the Virgin and Quasi-Virgin Forests Catalogue in Romania, the only instrument that provides strict protection for them. We are working on the paperwork to include other 5,000 hectares of forests from the Suceava, Maramures, Caras-Severin, Iasi and Prahova counties. The most advanced discussions are for 1,500 hectares in Suceava, whose studies must be analyzed by the Forestry Approval Technical Commission (CTAS) within the Environment Ministry.

 SEE THE ARTICLE

WWF’s proposals to identify strict protection areas for forests

We support the Environment Ministry’s decision to start the process of identifying potential strict protection areas. That’s why we sent it a letter in which we included WWF's proposals regarding the criteria that should be used in the process of identifying and deciding strict protection areas. The criteria refer to forest habitats and areas in the national forestry fund, taking into account the high conservation values that are specific at national level and the principle of multiple protection roles.

READ WWF's PROPOSALS

 

Thumbnail and all images:   © WWF-Romania


For more information:

Magda Constantin, Senior Communication Officer, mconstantin@wwf.ro