| Policy influencing/advocacy | The valley of Râul Alb, in Retezat Mountains, Romania, was until 2012 an intact forest landscape. It was the objective status, but, due to the lack of interests on conservation of the local PA administrations,it was not officially observed. The valley is split between Retezat National Park (IUCN II) and Hațeg Country Dinosaurs Geopark (IUCN IV). Then a tractor path penetrated the Western slope and, by its aid, the illegal loggers managed to perpetrate small scale logging up, in the national park, in the spruce altitudinal vegetation zone. But still, overall, the valley of Râul Alb is covered mostly with primary forest. In 2015, when the corrupt Romanian system allowed the ABI Automotion company to build a small hydropower plant, another small scale logging occurred, on the lower reaches of the valley. I lodged a criminal complaint on this but the prosecutors in Hunedoara County answered with false data and closed the file. Happily, we managed to stop the building of the hydropower plant in an early stage, so no other trees were cut. The Pin Matra inventory identified many polygons of virgin forests on the valley of Râul Alb and the ridge to the East. But two of theme, on the ridge, were utterly destroyed by the local ”Plai Compossessorate”. Now, when the Romanian National Catalogue of Virgin and Quasi-virgin Forests is developed, WWF managed to introduce a plot of forest, in the middle of the valley, in the Catalogue. Unfortunately, WWF signed a protocol with Romsilva, the huge company with exploits the forests, and it hiders the NGO from asking the protection of all the plots meeting the standards, it forces them to compromise.
Lately, 3 forestry plans were illegally approved by Hunedoara Environmental Agency, which is an institution subordinated to an IUCN member. Considering the position on national/nature parks and in overlapping Natura 2000 sites, all the plans should be subjected, inder SEA procedure, to environmental assessment and appropriate assessment. | On-going |
