Where the battle for Europe’s largest virgin forests is taking place in Romania

150 years, that is Almost no age for a tree at least in Fargaras Mountains in the Romanian Carpathians. Many of the forests here never exist managed by people her Trees never felled been. Here nature determines what comes into being and what passes away, through young trees that grow between and often directly on the old, dead trees, in order to finally close the green roof over our heads: “These forests with their Giant trees, the dead wood and everything that grows and lives in between are one Ecosystem – and that cools, stores our water and lets the rain fall over these mountains.”

But forests are also one huge storage facility for carbon dioxide and therefore one of the most effective tools in the Fight against climate change. The EU Deforestation Regulation is therefore intended to protect forests, not just in Europe, but worldwide. Whether coffee or wood pellets for heating: Not a product more should come onto the EU market, for that old forests came under the saw are. Too much bureaucracy, too much burden for the forest owners: With these arguments, Austria, for example, put the law on the back burner.

But how Europe urgently needs this law has, that becomes clear in the Romanian Carpathians. The Overexploitation of the largest virgin forests in Europe continues, past the applicable European nature directive.

A look at the official figures shows how much of Romania’s wood illegally or uncontrolled becomes. The wood alone, which is burned for heating in Romanian households, accounts for almost all of the official production. In fact, according to international experts, beaten twice as much.

And that even in ancient forests like those in the Fargaras Mountains. There are now sections here that are officially designated as virgin forests. They are therefore untouchable natural heritage for humans. But this one Areas are small, fragmented, “a patchwork carpet”as a Romanian environmental activist describes the situation. Direct There is extensive logging on the border to protected areasoften against all forestry common sense. The slope above the hiking trail is so steep that the… Erosion at the next big one Rain washes into the valley will, now, where the old trees are gone are. Bulldozers have turned the hiking trail into a mud road that, along with the tree remains, is sliding into the torrent below.

The bark beetle excuse

How far this destruction can go can be seen by looking up at the peaks of the Fargaras, where clear-cutting is spreading: Grass and bushesoften colored brown by the sun of this droughty summer. The natural spruce forest that has stood there for centuries probably never return. An infestation with bark beetles is then registered with the responsible authority as the reason for the beating. It then comes from healthy forests on a few dozen additional hectares Often not in Romania an.

International companies

There are more than enough buyers for wood from Romania – and prove that nature conservation is often grossly disregarded many scandals from the past years. Large timber companies, also from Austria and Germany, are influenced by reports from Romanian, but also international environmental organizations are massively burdened been. New, strict environmental protection rules have been introduced. There is shocking evidence everywhere here in the Fargaras Mountains that they are still bypassed far too often.

But now there are also Scientists from all over Europe here on the way to this To document, research and protect natural heritage. Die Agricultural University in Prague, or the forestry college in Rottenburg, Germany, regularly sends their research teams into these ancient forests. Through their work we now know that many of the beech trees here are many centuries old and that in the Dead wood on the ground that was simply cleared away from the clearcuts, Birds and beetles lives that have long since become extinct elsewhere. Seven million hectares of forest exists in Romania, only seven percent want to save researchers and environmentalists from deforestation. It’s about centuries-old, often completely untouched nature, because, warns forest expert Schickhofer“never coming back.”