Central Europe

The Carpatian arc 

Since 2014, FW-EFCE, which had been committed to meeting a growing demand for forest management, has encountered, throughout this exercise, incessant illegal logging to the point of deciding, even before the invasion of the neighbouring country, to put an end to our activities.

Europe's largest uninterrupted forest

Prestigious forests with extraordinary potential, populated by an incredibly rich fauna, some of which I rank among the most beautiful I have ever visited, and which will always remain engraved in my mind.

Central Europe is a forest zone renowned for the quality of its mixed forests, where beech, finding cool, calcareous soils to its liking, often reigns supreme; alongside it, conifers and other woods are also well represented.

The Carpathian Massif, Europe's second largest mountain range, stretches across 8 Central European countries and covers 209,000 km², 53% of which is in Romania. Although of medium altitude, the Carpathian arc is home to Europe's largest uninterrupted forest, a veritable mosaic of different environments: old-growth and undeveloped forests, managed forests, regenerating forests and coppices, and pastures.

In these grandiose landscapes, where the traditional transhumance of horses and sheep is a permanent activity, lives Europe's largest population of predators: brown bears, lynx, wolves, wildcats and almost half of Europe's population of golden eagles.

In all, over 1,500 animal species live here in the wild, including bison, deer, wild boar, chamois, elk, marmots and many other mammals, birds including the capercaillie, fish, amphibians, insects, reptiles and molluscs.

The Romanian Carpathians, which rise to an altitude of 2,544 m, are still home to some 400,000 ha of primary forests, among the last in Europe, which, nestled at altitude and protected by steep, almost inaccessible slopes, have escaped human appetite. The trees here are exceptionally old and large, and of remarkable quality.

On the slopes of the same massifs, beyond these sanctuaries protected in the form of nature reserves or parks, grow other forests of a similar vein, but where human activity has made itself felt, most often in the form of sanitation cuttings.

During the period 1945-1989, Romania fell under a totalitarian political regime, and the State, having abusively nationalized all forests belonging to individuals and legal entities, became the sole owner of the wooded areas.

The 1989 Revolution put an end to the dictatorship, and democracy was restored in early 1990.

The law adopted at that time attempted to remedy the injustices of the totalitarian system by agreeing to transfer back to the rightful owners the private forests covering an estimated total area of 6,400,000 ha, just under 50% of the country's forest area.

The procedure was long, tedious and, above all, costly, involving appraisal costs that the current owners or their heirs could not bear, especially after lengthy and costly restitution proceedings.

In terms of forest management, the Communist state has proved itself to be a respectful planner, considering forests as a whole and creating numerous high-quality infrastructures (gravel roads, bridges, erosion protection, .....) designed to enhance and protect the resource and its accesses. As a sole proprietor, he placed great emphasis on capital conservation, not considering economic profitability through excessive logging, and authorizing only rare sanitation cuts.

The very conservative management plans subsequently drawn up for ten-year periods could be modified at the owner's initiative, in consultation with local government experts or the owner's own management unit, in order to decide on more dynamic, more efficient and more profitable management.

While forestry represents a major activity at national level, with around half of its volume absorbed by local processing and production, due to a lack of information and training, and a lack of rigorous management, it is not sufficiently respectful of the country's exceptional environment: although Romania has allocated 30% of its resources to soil and water protection, only 5% of its total area was devoted to biodiversity conservation.