The New York Times writes that Europe is sacrificing its centuries-old forests for energy and that governments have bet billions of dollars on burning wood for green energy. The journalists also visited Romania, which “represents two thirds of the virgin forests of the European Union.”

The reporter and photographer spent four days in the forests of Romania, where they documented “solid felling” and tracked the transport of freshly cut tree trunks from Ceile Bikazului-Hashmash National Park to Georgeni (Harghita).

Although deforestation is not prohibited in Europe’s protected forests, governments are required to carry out environmental assessments to ensure the land is preserved. However, experts say such assessments are rare. Last year, the European Court of Auditors sounded the alarm about these supposedly protected forests, finding that many were in a poor or unsatisfactory state of conservation, the New York Times reported.

“After a 2,200-meter hike to Mount Chahlau in Romania, a trail of wooden corpses can be seen below, a scar on one of Europe’s last ancient forests, where 200-year-old trees once stood,” American journalists write.

What Romsilva says

After the New York Times report, Romsilva sent further clarification on Thursday.

“The extreme meteorological phenomenon that occurred on February 5, 2020 affected forests in several districts of the country, with massive windfalls and ruptures recorded on approximately 1,200 hectares of forest land in Cheile Bikazului – Hashmash National Park in Harghita and Neamts districts. Of them, about 800 hectares are in the integral protection zone, another 400 hectares are in the zone of sustainable nature protection purpose of the park. We note that approximately 90% of these forests affected by massive wind-cutting are private forests,” says Romsilva.

The company claims that the total amount of wood blown away by the wind in Cheile Bikazului – Hashmash National Park was 84,000 cubic meters.

“As there was a high risk of the appearance of a pest, the spruce bark beetle – Ips typographus, in the areas where the wind blows were recorded, which would quickly spread to the surrounding healthy forests, the Scientific Council of Cheile Bicazului National Park – Hăşmaş approved the removal of trees felled by the wind, the work is ongoing. These works are not programmed continuous felling, as presented in the New York Times publication, they are legal, permitted and necessary works to avoid the risk of bark pests in healthy forests around catastrophic forests after an extreme weather event,” Romsilva also forwarded.

The company also claims that the information that it used age-old trees from “some of the oldest forests on the continent” is false. (Source: News.ro)