Almost half of the country’s forest area, 3.2 million hectares, is public property and the rest is state property and private property. Public property halved after 1990 (the government had 6.3 million hectares back then) as a result of the restitution process that has yet to complete.
Eurostat data show the Romanian government to have suffered the most significant loss of forest area in Europe. Romania and other nine countries show a loss in this regard, while the public sector in countries like Bulgaria and Spain continued to gain forests.
Romanian statistics include forests, plots earmarked for afforestation, ponds and creek beds into the forest area. The statistics have expanded the forest area scope in the last few years, and therefore the forest area increased.
“Romania’s forest area covers 6.529 million hectares, of which the actual forests cover 6.373 million hectares, 97.6% of the country’s forest area and the rest is made up of plots earmarked for cultivation, production and forest management, forest roads, non-productive land (…),” said Dan Achim, head of forestry and game management, and forest development with the Department of Water, Forestry and Fisheries of the Environment Ministry.
Forest area in the European Union stands at 180 million hectares and the richest countries in this department are Finland and Sweden.
Romania’s government forests are managed by Romsilva, an entity with almost EUR300 million revenue and 18,200 employees. Romsilva has to allocate 25% of the revenue derived from timber sales to reforestation, and another 10% to forest roads. Private forest managers do exist in Romania, but some private owners have their forests managed by Romsilva, too.
Although forest cutting in Romania does not show in official statistics, because a change of legal status of a wooded plot is now allowed, they have severely affected the forests of the country.
Delegate minister for water, forestry and fisheries Lucia Varga says that more than was possible to reforest has been cut in the last eight years and this is only the quantifiable loss. Its effects are alarming: health deterioration, respiratory problems, floods, landslides, and higher risk of natural disasters.
Varga estimates about EUR17 billion euros will be needed to mitigate the risk of floods in the coming years.
“Illegal logging and massive deforestation are the main problems that persist in the absence of clear up-to-date regulations, as well as because of the complicity and irresponsibility of those who should have protected the forest and enforce the law,” Lucia Varga says.
She believes the forestry code must be changed and the modifications are to be passed soon. The forestry code regulates forest status, how timber can be cut and used and sets punishments for illegal logging.
The provisions of the new code include criminalizing the cutting and stealing of timber from the forest (which are now treated as a crime only if the damage is at least five times higher than the average price per cubic meter), prohibiting access to forest roads at night and banning the sale of timber straight from the forest.
Dan Achim says Romania has a forest planting strategy and the funds to implement it come from the money forest owners have to pay as a percentage of what they make from selling timber.
The volume of wood processed by the industry reached 16.2 million cubic meters in 2011, and half of it was turned into lumber, according to the National Statistics Institute. Lumber is one of the simplest types of wood processing and a significant part of it goes abroad.
Easy access to wood products and low prices have attracted major foreign wood processing industry companies, and especially those from Austria. They have invested hundreds of millions of euros in plants that process wood and export most of their production.
All the major wood industry companies have development plans for the coming years. The market leader has overshot the half a billion euro revenue mark, leaving even Romsilva behind.
Whereas foreign companies dominate wood industry, Romanian companies dominate the furniture industry. However, the leader of the latter has barely gone beyond EUR100 million revenue.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)