Illegal logging in the forests of Romania between 2009 and 2011

Introduction

Institutions with atributions of forestry administration and control

The results of the study

Methodology

Conclusions

3

4

10

14

15

CU

PRIN

S

Without healthy and thiving forests, our planet cannot sustain life. Until now, up to 80% of the world’s forests have been degraded or destroyed. Greenpeace is running a global campaign to stop deforestations until 2020 to protect what is left of these extraordinary ecosystems. Besides the economic importance, forests have a crucial role in maintaining the climate characteristics. At a global level, deforestation is one of the main factors that contribute to climate change.The surface of Romania is covered with forests in a procentage of 29%, compared to the average value of the European Union, which is over 40%1.

Approximately 51,9% of the forest covered areas are in mountain regions, and the rest are in hills and plains areas2.

The tree species are distributed, mainly, according to the relief formes and phytoclimatic �oors.

Regarding the species structure3, the forests comprise of the following main species: beech (32%), spruce (23%), oak(17%), �r (5%), di�erent hardwood species (5%), other softwood species (15%) and other resinous (2%).

Sadly, the illegal logging phenomena is very widespread in the world and also in Romania. Greenpeace carried out an investigation on this matter to document the situation and count the number of cases of illegal loggings between 2009 and 2011. These cases are taken in the records of the responsible authorities.

Introduction 32

23

17

5 5

15

2

1. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/fore/characteristics/index_en.htm2. Source: Ministry of Enviroment and Forestry, the „State of the forests 2010” report http://www.mmediu.ro/paduri/management_forestier/2011-11-18_management_forestier_stareapadurilor2010.pdf , pg 93. Source: Ministry of Enviroment and Forestry http://www.mmediu.ro/paduri/management_forestier/2011-11-18_management_forestier_stareapadurilor2010.pdf , pg 11

Proportions of tree species (%)

Beech

Spruce

Oak Fir

Other h

ardwoo

ds

Other s

oftwoo

ds

Other r

esino

us

Gra

ph 1

România has 6,515,000 hectares of forest, of which 3,339,000 belong to the Romanian state, 2,079,000 are owned by physical and juridical persons, 1,024,000 hectares are public property of the territorial-administrative units and 73 thousand hectares are private property of territorial-administrative units4.

51% of the forestry fund is public property and is adminis-tered mainly by the National Forest Administration-Romsilva-and 49% is private property, being mostly administered by private forestry structures.

Up to the end of 2010, 463 of forestry administration structures were authorized and re-authorized (according to the Minister Order 904/2010), of which 325 Forest Districts from the National Forest Administration - Romsilva structure and 138 private Forest Districts5.

Deforestation is a widespread phenomena in Romania, especially in the counties from the mountain area, and the authorities have the responsibility to manage and monitor the forestry interventions. Also, if illegal loggings occur, it is the reponsibility of the authorities to perform inspections and to apply necessary sanctions - and if it is the case, to draft criminal �les.According to the current Forest Code, approved in March 2008 and updated in 2010, forest management is the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which has, in its turn, more subordinated institu-tions, such as: The National Forest Administration-Romsilva, Territorial Forestry Regime and Hunting Inspec-torates, the Forest Research and Management Institute, the National Environment Guard, and the National Environmental Protection Agency. (See Figure 1, pag. 9).

Institutions with atributions of forestry administration and control

4. Source: Ministry of Environment and Forestry http://www.mmediu.ro/paduri/management_forestier/2011-11-18_management_forestier_stareapadurilor2010.pdf5. Source: Ministry of Environment and Forestry http://www.mmediu.ro/paduri/management_forestier/2011-11-18_management_forestier_stareapadurilor2010.pdf , pagina 19

The purpose of the National Forest Administration - Romsilva, is to manage the forest fund from the public state property in a sustainable and unitary way, according to the provisions of the forest plannings and forestry regime norms, with te purpose of raising the contribution of the forests to the improvement of environmental conditions and to provide wood to the national economy and other forest products and speci�c forestry services.Romsilva is functioning in the base of Law no. 46/2008 (Forest Code) and according to the Govermental Decision no. 229/2009 regarding the reorganisation of the National Forest Administration-Romsilva.

Within the structure of the National Forest Administration-Romsilva territorial units with no juridical personality are functioning (Forest Directorates) as well as the Development and Research Facility for raising fur animals in Targu Mures and a unit with juridical personal-ity - The Forest Research and Management Institute6.

Territorial

It has representant o�ces in each county and 9 regional coordination o�ces. Under their coordination also enter the state and private Forest Districts.

National Forest Administration - Romsilva

6. www.rosilva.ro

The Territorial Inspectorate for Forestry and Hunting Regime (ITRSV)

Tabl

e 1

Ilfov

Teleorman

Giurgiu

Ialomița

Călărași

Constanța

Brăila

Buzău

Galați

Tulcea

Vaslui

Vrancea

Mureș

Harghita

Covasna

Sibiu

Brașov

Vâlcea

Gorj

Dolj

Mehedinți

Olt

Suceava

Bacău

Iași

Botoșani

Neamț

Cluj

BistrițaNăsăud

Maramureș

Alba

Satu Mare

Sălaj

Bihor

Arad

Timiș

CarașSeverin

Hunedoara

Dâmbovița

Argeș

Prahova

ITRSVBucurești

ITRSVFocșani

ITRSVBrașov

ITRSVVâlcea

ITRSVSuceava

ITRSVCluj

ITRSVOradea

ITRSVTimișoara

ITRSVPloiești

Regional structure of Territorial Forestry

Regime and hunting Inspectorate

ITRSV is an institution with juridical personality subordi-nated to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, organ-ised as a regional structure with inspectorates that have territorially limited competences, that coordinate, oversee and perform, through forestry and hunting inspections, activities to implement and control the forestry and hunting regime in the given counties. the forestry and hunting inspections in the organised structure do not have juridical personality, being organ-ised in compartments in the given counties to ITRSV, except the county where the ITRSV o�ce is found. The ITRSV functions as a public institution �nanced from the state budget.The functions, objectives and own attributions of ITRSV are established according to the Governmental Decision 333/2005 to reorganise territorial forestry and hunting districts into forestry and hunting regime inspectorates and according to the provisions of the reglementations regarding the forestry and hunting regime.

The Forestry Research and Management Institute (ICAS) was founded in 1933 as a public institution of national interest, specialized in researching and implementing new technologies in the public and private forestry sector, in order to ensure the sustainable management of Romanian forests7.

The Forestry Research and Management Institute

7. www.icas.ro

National Environmental Guard

The National Environmental Guard is a public institution that functions as a specialized organ of the central public adminstration, with juridical personality, entirely �nanced by the state budget, subordinated to the central public authority of environmental protection. The National Environmental Guard is a specialized inspec-tion and control body and the commissioners are public servants with a speci�c statute, that can take sanctioning measures, can suspend/halt activities due to pollution and environmental deterioration

The National Environmental Protection Agency is the special-ized institution of the central public administration, subordi-nated to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, with competences in implementing policies and legislation in the �eld of environmental protection, established by the Governmnetal Decision no. 918 since 30 August 2010regarding reorganising and functioning of the National Agency for Environmental Protection and of public institu-tions that it coordinates. The National Environmental Protec-tion Agency was founded in 2004, it has eight regional agencis and 34 county agencies, directly subordinated.

Besides the institutions that belongs to the Ministry of Enviromnent and Forestry, also the Gendarmerie and the Police have forest-related atributions.

or for not respecting the conditions imposed through the acts of reglementation and measures established in the ascertainment notes and in the inspection and control reports. The personnel with control attributions is invested with the public authority of the state, in order to perform its attributions, as well as the work obligations8.

The Environmental Guard controls the way the biological resources, of wild �ora and fauna are capitalized, the �shery fund in the natural waters and of animals of hunting interest; it organizes prevention and control actions, to avoid the distruction of natural habitats in the protected areas; it controls how the enviromental legislation is respected in the protected areas, parks and natural reservations, organising common actions with their representants, in order to protect the natural habitats.

The National Environmental Protection Agency

8. Decision nr. 112 of 18 February 2009 regarding organising and functioning of National Environmental Guard http://gnm.ro/staticdocs/HG_112_2009.pdf?PHPSESSID=e07f396754b31f51fdded401b0c90709

The central unit of the Romanian Gendarmerie, the General Gendarmerie Inspectorate has a juridical person-ality and general territorial competence. It plans, organ-ises, runs, coordinates and controls the activity of the subordinated structures, it ensures the collaboration with other state institutions, governmental organisations, both national and from abroad. Initially, the Gendarmerie had 16 di�erent attributions related to the ascertainments of forestry contraventions and applying the sanctions provided by the law.

According to the Forest Code, a part of these atributions have been taken away from the Gendarmerie9, currently it is abilitated to ensure special support in organisising forest watch and only to ascertain contraventions, without being able to apply sanctions10.

The department for forest o�ence �ght within the Roma-nian Police runs speci�c activities to prevent and �ght illegal logging and timber transport from the state and private forest fund that exist on the administrative-territorial radius of the counties; it runs information and operation activities, it ascertains crimes and applies contraventional sanctions to the forest and �shery regime; it relates to the county Forest Directorate, the Inspectorate for Territorial Forest and Hunting Regime, the territorial structures of the Environmental Guard, the Financial Guard, the National Agency for Fishing and Fisheries and other institutions or organisations with attributions in these �elds.In the forest �eld, the police agents run �eld inspections, ascertain the facts, apply the properly sanctions and draft criminal �les, if the case �ts.

The Police

The Gendarmerie

9. http://www.legestart.ro/Legea-171-2010-stabilirea-sanctionarea-contraventiilor-silvice-(MzU4MDgw).htm10. http://www.legislatieromaneasca.ro/uploads/files/CODUL_SILVIC.pdf , pagina 22

From the diagram the structure of the institutions in relation to the Ministry of Environmentand Forestry regarding the activity of coordinationcontrol and financing.

Coordination

Coordination and finance

Control

Figu

re 1

Ministry of Environment and Forestry

Romsilva

ICAS 41 County ForestDirectorates

State ForestDistricts

Private ForestDistricts

ITRSV

Repartition by county of the illegal tree logging cases registered by the authorities between 2009 and 2011.

Based on the answers of the authorities, between 2009 and 2011, Greenpeace registered a total number of 31.456 national cases of illegal tree logging that resulted with sanctions (contraventional �nes or criminal records, depending on the severity of the deed).

Results of Greenpeace Study

Figu

re 2

44Satu Mare

80Bihor

560Arad

501Timiș

543Caraș Severin

230Hunedoara

2503Gorj 1655

Vâlcea

944Dolj 296

Olt410

Mehedinți

570Sălaj

1025Cluj

408Mureș

441Alba

1003Sibiu

380Brașov 494

Covasna

510Harghita

1290Neamț

1910Bacău

161Iași

150Vaslui

165Galați

1302Vrancea

176Buzău

2297Prahova

178Dâmbovița

6458Argeș

39Teleorman 8

Giurgiu

87Brăila

172Tulcea

82Constanța

225Ialomița

185Călărași

278Ilfov

1535Maramureș

1160Suceava

53Botoșani

948

BistrițaNăsăud

The National Environmental Guard is a public institution that functions as a specialized organ of the central public adminstration, with juridical personality, entirely �nanced by the state budget, subordinated to the central public authority of environmental protection. The National Environmental Guard is a specialized inspec-tion and control body and the commissioners are public servants with a speci�c statute, that can take sanctioning measures, can suspend/halt activities due to pollution and environmental deterioration

The most illegal logging cases registered in Arges county (over 6,000) Gorj (2,500), Prahova (over 2,000), Bacău (almost 2,000) – see table no. 2. The smallest number of cases of illegal loggings registered in the Giurgiu and Teleorman counties, with 8, respectively 39 cases, where the forest covered area is signi�cantly smaller than other counties. The numbers di�er a lot also by relief form, in the plain counties there are more forest covered areas than in the predominantly mountainous ones.

According to the Greenpeace investigation, there are over ten counties where in the last three years the authorities have registered over 1,000 illegal logging cases– see table no.2.

This kind of illegal logging cases found by the authorities between 2009 and 2011 were registered in the Argeș county (6,458), Gorj (2,503) and Prahova (2,297).

The situation of the 10 counties is illustrated in Graph no. 2.

First ten counties ordered by the number of illegal logging cases ascertainedby the authorities between 2009 and 2011

Tabl

e 2

The number of illegal tree logging registered by the authorities

Gra

fic 2

No. County Number of illegal logging cases (2009-2011)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Argeș

Gorj

Prahova

Bacău

Vâlcea

Maramureș

Vrancea

Neamț

Suceava

Cluj

6458

2503

2297

1910

1655

1535

1302

1290

1160

1025

Argeș

Gorj

Prahov

aBac

ău

Vâlcea

Maramure

ș

Vrance

a

Neamț

Sucea

va Cluj

2503 22971910 1655 1535 1302 1290 1160 1025

6458

11. Forest Code of March 18, 2008

Between 2009 and 2011, the most illegal logging cases were registered by the Police (21,127 cases), followd by the county Forest Directorates (15,076 cases) and ITRSV (4,851 cases).

According to the data communicated by the authorities, the timber volume that has been ilegally exploited in their account is of at least 452,842 cubic meters.

Graph no. 3 shows that there is a signi�cant di�erence between the number of cases registered by the Police and the ones registered by the Gendarmerie. The explanation for this contrast resides in the fact that, since 2010, by modifying the legislation, some of the attribu-tions related to the forest �eld have been taken away from the Gendarmerie1.

In many cases great di�erences have been observed between the cases registered by ITRSV and the Police, Gendarmerie or the Forest Directorate – the biggest contrast is in Argeș county where the Police registered 3,686 cases of illegal loggings and ITRSV only 51.

The illegal logging cases, registered by the authorities at a national level between2009 and 2011

Gra

ph 3

Genda

rmeri

ePoli

ce

Forest

Directo

rate

ITRSV

2368

21127

15076

4851

In the table below the �rst ten counties are presented according to the di�erence registered between the cases registered by the Police and the cases registered by ITRSV.The worst case is in Arges county, with a di�erence of over 3,600 cases between Police and ITRSV reportings. - see table no. 3.

Therefore, in �ve counties there are di�erences of over 1000 cases between the data registered by the authori-ties: Gorj, Vâlcea, Neamț, Vrancea and Sibiu.One of the counties where high di�erences are registered is Prahova, where the Police has no registered case, ITRSV has two, but the Gendarmerie

has 437 cases, and the county Forest Directorate has no less than 2297 of illegal logging registered between 2009-2011. These examples raise doubts about the control quality, the applied sanctions and forest manage-ment in general. Considering the regional o�ces of ITRSV and analizing the number of cases of reported illegal loggings, we can see that most of them enter in the records of ITRSV Ploiești, that coordinates Dâmbovița, Argeș and Prahova counties - see graphn no.4

O�cially, between 2009 and 2011, a total number of almost 9000 cases of illegal loggings were registered in Dâmbovița, Argeș and Prahova.

Differences between the number of cases registered by the authorities

Tabe

l 3

Total number of illegal logging cases attributes to the regional ITRSV offices records

Gra

ph 4

County Cases registered by the Police Cases registered by ITRSV Difference

Argeș

Gorj

Vâlcea

Neamț

Vrancea

Sibiu

Suceava

Dolj

Maramureș

Harghita

3686

2503

1655

1290

1302

1003

1160

944

1535

510

51

25

64

18

61

2

195

13

816

42

3635

2478

1591

1272

1241

1001

965

931

719

468

Bucure

ști

Oradea

Timișo

ara

Focșa

ni

Brașov Cluj

Sucea

va

Vâlcea

Ploieș

ti

8171254 1274

20522795

39494574

5808

8933

Greenpeace România carried out, between February and July 2011, an investigation on the illegal logging situation in Romania.Greenpeace asked for information about the illegal logging cases, contraventions and sanctions applied referring to illegal loggings in all the counties.

Therefore, Greenpeace contacted the Inspectorates for Territorial Forestry and Hunting Regime, the Environmen-tal Guard, Gentarmes Territorial Inspectorates, County Police Inspectorates and county Forest Directorates.

Greenpeace România sent 339 written demands to the aforementioned institutions12 , from which 329 o�cial responses were recieved, refering to the number of illegal logging cases and applied sanctions - see table no. 4.

Methodology

12. These institutions are obliged to give, when asked, this kind of public information, according to the Law no. 544/2001

Number of demands addressed to the institutions and number of recieved replies

Tabl

e 4

Contacted institution Total of written demands sent Total responses

Environmental Guard

Gendarmerie

Police

ITRSV

Forest Directorate

71

74

98

27

69

66

79

89

28

67

Between 2009 and 2011 there are o�cially over 31.456 cases of illegal logging cases. In other words, 10485 cases a year and circa 29 illegal cuttings a day.

Most cases of illegal loggings were registered in Argeș, Gorj and Prahova counties, a total of 11.258 cases between 200 and 2011.

Starting with 2010, the Gendarmerie was taken away some attributions, at this moment it can only ascertain but not apply sanctions in the area of illegal logging cases.Regarding the number of cases of illegal loggings registered by the authorities, it must be taken into account the fact that the real total number is higher, to this sum adding the cases that have not been identi�ed by the authorities.

This study o�ers an overview on the o�cial data given by the authorities, that have the responsibility to sustainably manage forests and to track the cases and sanctions.

Conclusions

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisa-tion that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.