We Urge Parliament to Promptly Implement Essential Forestry Reforms

Here are the four key areas where we urge authorities to implement the long-awaited reforms:

1. Reforming the National System for Combating Illegal Logging

Payments for contracted and harvested timber must be strictly based on the quantities of wood declared at the point of market entry, not on the estimated volume calculated through standing timber in the forest evaluation document. This principle lies at the heart of forestry management reform, with implications for timber valorization regulations, forest protection protocols, and the entire national system for combating illegal logging.

Control focused on the timber declared at market entry points is the only approach that provides solid evidence in court and aligns with the principles of simplicity, transparency, and efficiency. The current control system, which relies on „marking” and guarding trees in the forest, must be transformed into one centered on monitoring the volumes of timber introduced to the market.

2. Public Interest in Sustainable Forest Management

The forests within the National Forestry Fund are a national asset, and Forestry Districts (Ocoale Silvice) serve a public interest. The Forestry Code must clarify that forest management and basic forestry services are public service activities with a specific forestry nature, and the objectives set by the rules for timber valorization from publicly owned forests are public service obligations.

Forest management and the use of timber from publicly owned forests must not be replaced by commercial services aimed at maximizing profit margins for specific commercial entities. Otherwise, the management of publicly owned forests would be reduced to a purely commercial activity, replacing the necessary efforts for sustainable forest management with short-term profit-driven actions. Such an approach would undermine the ability to support the sustainable development of the forestry economy, to the detriment of the public interest and society as a whole.

3. Promoting the Superior Wood Valorization

The definition of “superior wood valorization” needs to be corrected, as the current version distorts an established concept. The current definition does not clearly promote the superior wood valorization by forest managers through processed wood assortments, ensuring that each assortment is assigned an appropriate industrial use. This would maximize added value and support the cascading use of wood.

To facilitate the sale of processed wood by managers of forests within the public forestry fund, an updated National Standard for Processed Round Wood for Industrial Assortments is essential. Such a standard would provide the minimum framework for promoting the superior wood valorization in Romania.

4. State's Private Property

The proposed draft law risks generating a new wave of chaotic retrocessions, which could lead to an increase of the artificial administrative fragmentation of the national forestry fund. To prevent this phenomenon, it is necessary to prohibit the transfer of lands from the National Forestry Fund from state’s public ownership to the state’s private ownership, except for the lands that did not belong to the state’s public domain before March 6, 1945.

Respecting the right to property is a mandatory condition in a rule-of-law state, and as such, the retrocessions of assets that rightfully belonged to former owners is mandatory. However, the right of the Romanian state to property must also be respected, ensuring that the national forestry fund, which has always belonged to the state, is not fragmented.