Slowly but surely, we are “tightening the noose around our own necks,” selling our clean air, the oxygen produced by trees, this “green gold” of our country. Under these conditions, in a few years Romania will become a semi-desert.
The timber business, especially illegal activities, is thriving day by day. Entire hectares of forest are being cut down daily, with a large part of the wood being exported.
Many countries in Western Europe rely on our timber. Because our laws are permissive and not strictly enforced. A large portion of the exported wood passes through our county.
An Arad resident managed to film, from the bridge at Grădiște, a locomotive pulling dozens of wagons full of wood. Most likely, this train was headed for export, leaving the country through the Curtici railway border.
Five billion euros. That’s how much thieves have gained in the last 27 years by stripping entire forests from the face of the earth in Romania. They have stolen 80 million cubic meters of wood, and we see the effects every year – floods and landslides. As the authorities seem overwhelmed or indifferent to the phenomenon, they are content to publish statistics showing that fewer trees are being cut down.
The volume of harvested timber has increased by 6.3% compared to the previous year, with 181,567 hectares of forest cut down, of which 3,435 hectares were clear-cut. However, the national forest fund has increased to 6.58 million hectares, according to data compiled by the National Institute of Statistics.
Statistically speaking, from the figures mentioned above, it appears that every day of the 365 days of the year, an average of 497.4 hectares of forest have been cut down, of which 9.4 hectares were clear-cut.
For more than 25 years since the fall of communism in 1989, the management of wild animals has been left to hundreds of regional hunting associations. Each year, the associations would present a total number of bears in their area, as well as a number considered dangerous to humans.
Every minute, the Earth loses 10 hectares of forest!
The speed at which the planet’s forests are being cut down is continuously accelerating, with 6.4 million hectares deforested annually, according to a report from the United Nations.
