Timber mafia rages in Romania's last primeval forest

Timber mafia rages in Romania's last primeval forest

The traces of the crime lie in the undergrowth, to the left and right of the trail. Everywhere in the wooded area south of the Romanian city of Brasov, there are tree stumps whose trunks have been illegally cut down. Some of them are already weathered, others look as if criminals have recently attacked the trees.

Valeriu-Norocel Nicolescu, Professor of Forestry at the University of Brasov, knows exactly which trees have been felled legally and which illegally. He has been coming to this forest for years. Nicolescu points to a cluster of stumps. "These were cut down illegally," he says. A little later, the same picture. Another weathered stump between two conifers: cut down without permission.

However, the problem has now been brought under control. And yet: "Reforestation takes a lot of time and money and is a lot of effort," says Nicolescu. Illegal logging has an impact on the local areas and the forest "on a large scale". Large-scale illegal logging is taking place all over the world and in Europe. Here on the continent, according to environmental protection organizations, especially in Romania.

Dangerous resistance

This is what those who stand in the way call a mafia. Catalina Radulescu is one of them. She is part of the Agent Green organization. The environmentalists go deep into the forests and document deforestation - illegal deforestation, as they say. Numerous videos that the organization uploads to YouTube show them confronting the alleged perpetrators on site.

It's really dangerous, says Radulescu. "People have already died." What she means: back in 2019, the umbrella organization of Romanian forest workers' unions (Consilva) reported six murdered foresters in recent years. In over 600 cases, forestry workers are said to have been attacked while at work.

Many of the Agent Green activists do not go public. Out of fear, as Radulescu says. Why are the lawyer and her fellow activists doing all this to themselves? "If we don't do it, the whole forest will disappear. And our quality of life will no longer be the same," she is certain. Radulescu doubts that people in Romania are really aware of the consequences. "There will be massive changes," she warns, "while we are still alive."

A lucrative business

In the forest area around Brasov, the forestry workers take out a folder and leaf through the evidence photos wrapped in cling film. They are 15-year-old photos of the slopes they are standing on. The pictures show the consequences of illegal deforestation. Where the trees now stand close together again, 15 years ago it was a desolate and colorless wasteland.

The images look like the pictures that environmentalists publish every year from the primeval forests of the Amazon. And even though, according to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), over 90 percent of deforestation is taking place in tropical forests, it is also happening here. The last primeval forest in Europe is dying in Romania, say activists. And this is also due to unauthorized deforestation. According to the European Union, up to 30 percent of the world's timber is felled illegally. The annual value: six billion euros. Criminals earn a lot from clear-cutting forests.

It is unclear how high the proportion of illegal logging is in Romania. In a press conference, the Ministry of the Environment initially stated that around 50 percent of the wood felled was illegal. However, according to ntv, the ministry has since backtracked. It is not currently possible to provide figures, an inventory is currently underway. Both the Ministry of the Environment and the law enforcement authorities declined a request for an interview.

Complex countermeasures

"We must finally take timber theft seriously as part of organized crime," warns Jan-Niclas Gesenhues. Together with his Green Party colleague Lukas Benner, he has traveled to the Romanian forest. The members of the Bundestag want to do more to combat the machinations of the timber mafia - at German and European level. According to Gesenhues, some of the wood is used as tables or cupboards in German living rooms. "Nobody can want that," he says.

According to environmental protection organizations, there are various ways in which illegally felled wood can be turned into seemingly legal wood - and thus end up in DIY stores or furniture stores. In some cases, logging permits are used several times. However, illegally felled timber is also often processed and relabeled in sawmills. As a result, it is almost impossible to trace which boards that leave the sawmills come from regularly felled timber and which from irregular timber.

Gesenhues also speaks of "mafia structures". Mafia structures that, according to his party colleague Benner, are being fought with far too few powers by the law enforcement authorities, including in Germany. This needs to be adjusted. "In the case of environmental crime, for example, telecommunications surveillance is not allowed," says Benner, describing the situation. This sector of organized crime should also be fought as such and "not punished like parking offences".

Wood is not cocaine

According to a report by the European Union, environmental crime is the third largest criminal activity worldwide. Only drug trafficking and product piracy are ahead of it. In addition to illegal logging, this also includes, for example, the improper disposal of waste or unauthorized fishing. According to the report, environmental crime causes a loss of up to 281 billion dollars annually - and the trend is rising. Benner says: "Environmental crime is not the refrigerator that was dumped somewhere on the edge of the forest." In many places, however, there is a lack of ambitious law enforcement and the corresponding human and financial resources.

The EU wants to combat crimes such as illegal logging more rigorously. The fact is that environmental crime is complex and combines many aspects - from environmental pollution to corruption. It is difficult to uncover, often takes place in secret and is therefore difficult to punish. While the smuggling of drugs, for example, is always and clearly criminal, the timber mafia first has to prove that the felled timber was felled illegally. A ton of cocaine in a container in the port of Hamburg is clearly a criminal offense - a ton of shelves in the container next door is not.

Different measures and cooperation between different law enforcement agencies are needed to ensure that illegally felled timber no longer ends up in our living rooms in future. And creative approaches: In Romania, there is now an app that citizens can use to report suspicious timber shipments directly to the authorities.

Source: www.ntv.de