Over the weekend, thousands of people protested against the illegal logging trade which has seen some 31,000 hectares of forest slashed between 2007 and 2013, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The protesters said the figures are an underestimate.
The deforestation is taking place in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, where some of the timber is then sold to make flooring or heating pellets that are sold in Germany and other countries. This practice is against the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR), which came into legal effect on March 3, 2013.
Forests in #Romania once covered 75,5% of the country. Today, it only covers 26,7%. #Deforestation pic.twitter.com/0c6eKctsxi
— Voinţa Populară (@Vointa_Populara) May 4, 2015
Last week, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which has offices in Washington DC and London, released a new video exposing the leadership of the largest forest products company in Romania, the Austrian-based Holzindustrie Schweighofer, "willingly and knowingly accepting illegally harvested wood and incentivizing additional cutting through a bonus system," according to IHB timber network.
Following last week's release of EIA undercover video footage, exposing Austrian-based wood products company…
Posted by Environmental Investigation Agency (Washington, DC) on Thursday, May 7, 2015
Romania, has the most important forests in Europe "in terms of biodiversity, in terms of size, in terms of forest intact landscapes," said Alexander von Bismarck, director of the US branch of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
Logging Off
Protest against abusive deforestation #unitedagainstdeforestation #Romania #Europe http://t.co/02P0uaAbrV pic.twitter.com/J1eeIVjHmd
— Anda Burcea (@AndaBURCEA) May 9, 2015
On Monday, German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that von Bismarck contacted Schweighofer under an assumed name, claiming to be a lumber supplier and filmed the exchange with a hidden camera.
"The video shows Karl Schmid, Schweighofer's manager in Romania. He casually boasts in the film about his company's dominance of the sector. Roughly 7 million cubic meters of coniferous wood is cut every year, he says, adding that, 'If we run in full, we need 4.5 million for ourselves.' Schmid gently toys with a plastic bottle in his hands and says: 'There's no place for others'," the magazine reported.
Schweighofer's largest customers include Austrian manufacturers of wood pellets, who also supply Germany.
Look who's defending Transylvania against the corrupt #Austria & #Hungary deforestation industry in #Romania! pic.twitter.com/cinYy6P4sO
— Cristian (@Dinesco) October 20, 2014
The revelations have brought calls for the EU to toughen up on the European Union Timber Regulation. EIA Forests Campaigner Jago Wadley said:
"In recent months, EIA and progressive industry actors alike have repeatedly called for the EC to knock member state heads together to ensure the EUTR is adequately and equally implemented and enforced across the European community. EIA therefore welcomes the EC's EUTR implementation scorecard as an important signal that it expects member states to robustly implement and enforce the EUTR."
