The National Forestry Administration Romsilva needs a reform aimed at improving financial performance and administrative efficiency. However, a real reform cannot be complete without depoliticizing the institution and transparently establishing appropriate performance indicators. The main objective should not be maximizing immediate profits but ensuring sustainable management of the state’s forests. This requires harmonizing economic, social, and environmental interests through a participatory process.
The reform of Romsilva is absolutely necessary. It’s an undeniable fact recognized by all stakeholders, including the institution’s employees. Its financial performance and the need to enhance administrative efficiency are currently under scrutiny. These aspects are undoubtedly important, but the reform must not overlook society’s legitimate expectations on maintaining and improving ecosystem services, as well as the local processing and superior valorization of forest resources originating from state-owned public property.
This is why Romsilva’s reform and reorganization should not be viewed merely as an administrative issue for foresters. Sustainable forest management is a matter of public interest and should not be replaced with commercial services aimed solely at maximizing profit margins for a particular company. In other words, the primary goal should not be maximizing Romsilva’s immediate profits but maintaining sustainable forest management practices while ensuring long-term benefits for the entire forestry sector and society. The objective should be to improve environmental services, maximize added value, diversify the local economy, and contribute to the socio-economic development of local communities.
What Elements Romsilva’s Reform Should Contain
In this context, the essence of a real reform of Romsilva consists of:
1, Establishing long-term strategic objectives and clear, ambitious, and appropriate performance indicators that support the improvement of public enterprises' performance within a predictable and well-founded decision-making system. Transparency in setting non-financial performance indicators is particularly relevant in the context of fulfilling public service obligations.
- Unfortunately, the authorities have not provided a detailed explanation of the overall vision they are considering for the reform and reorganization of Romsilva. Additionally, public service obligations have been abusively restricted, and performance indicators have been arbitrarily set behind closed doors through legislative frameworks. Expectations from this public enterprise should be defined through a transparent and participatory process, taking into account the public interest related to non-commercial, environmental, and social aspects, which should take precedence in the management of state-owned public forests.
2. Depoliticization and ensuring a competitive and transparent process for appointing administrators
- Unfortunately, the selection processes for board members and directors have consistently allowed political interference. This has led to a decline in professionalism due to political appointments at the company's leadership and the perpetuation of a constant state of interim management. In recent years, Romsilva has been dominated by short-term management contracts lasting only two to four months, which has effectively paralyzed the implementation of any efficiency initiatives. These practices have also extended to local forestry districts, where political connections were often more important than professionalism for career advancement.
3. Transparent mechanisms for performance monitoring and compliance with legislation and accountability
- The state authorities are represented on Romsilva’s board of directors, which approves the annual budget and evaluates the fulfillment of performance indicators. The evolution of the company's performance should not, therefore, come as a surprise. However, political appointments and controversies are also widespread within the Agency for Monitoring and Evaluating the Performance of Public Enterprises (AMEPIP), which oversees 7% of Romania’s economy and is responsible for selecting Romsilva’s future board of directors “by the book.” Additionally, the partial suspension of payments from the third installment of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) has been linked to the non-transparent and competence-lacking appointment process for state-owned company leadership positions.
4, Increasing administrative efficiency by reducing excessive bureaucracy and unnecessary administrative burdens imposed by law.
- Unfortunately, the current legislative framework leads to over-regulation, administrative bottlenecks (e.g: the approval procedures for forest management plans), and impose unnecessary administrative tasks that increase institutional inefficiency. However, the new Forestry Code presents several opportunities for improving the regulatory framework. Therefore, 2025 will be a crucial year for shaping reforms through the development of secondary legislation, which should bring even more “simplicity-transparency-efficiency” to forest management.
5. Establishing clear rules for the superior valorization of forest resources, aiming to improve environmental services and increase the contribution of the forestry sector to the sustainable socio-economic development of local communities.
- Unfortunately, there is a tendency to assess forestry administration profits solely by increasing the price obtained through direct sales, without considering the benefits generated by vertical value chains through downstream wood processing. Romsilva places a renewable natural resource on the market, not a finished product. The government, through the Wood Valorization Regulation, is in the best position to decide on the “formula” for allocating timber through auctions. This approach would facilitate the overall growth of the forestry sector’s contribution to sustainable socio-economic development, which is a Strategic Action Direction within the National Forestry Strategy.
Context
Latest decades have proven that any public enterprise caught in excessive politicization is invariably doomed to failure due to deprofessionalization, cronyism, corruption, reckless spending, or stalled investments. This pattern is well-established. For a few years, we have been asking whether and who is actually leading Romsilva, given that the first and last competitive selection process for the director position took place in 2016. In reality, no management mandate exists beyond what is dictated by political interests, and the only reason we have not witnessed a complete collapse is the dedication of foresters within the administrative structures—many of whom have long called for real reform.
It is encouraging that Romsilva’s reform has finally reached the forefront of the political agenda. In this context, we call on the Ministry of Environment, Waters, and Forests to revise the “letter of expectations” and organize a public debate to establish Romsilva’s public service obligations and performance indicators, ensuring they align with the National Forestry Strategy for 2030.
We also wonder who will draft Romsilva’s reorganization plan, considering that the current director’s latest two-month mandate is set to expire in just a few days. We believe that any concrete decisions regarding its reorganization plan should be made only after properly reviewing the performance indicators and depoliticizing the institution by appointing its leadership transparently, through a competitive selection process.