Romania - Old growth forest in winter.
Deep winter in one of Romania's biggest primary beech forests - in the Domogled - Valea Cernei national park. The national park protects some of largest primary beech forests within the EU in some side valleys of the Cerna valley. These parts of the park are also component part of the transnational, serial UNESCO World Heritage Site for protection of Europe's ancient and primeval beech forests. However, there have been conflicts between the Romanian state and the state forestry company Romsilva (which is responsible for managing the park) and conservationists over commercial logging in forests with high biodiversity value that are not strictly protected within the park boundaries or the boundaries of the Natura 2000 protected area. NGOs such as Agent Green accuse the state forests / the Romanian state of using the majority of the park as a logging area and of actually strictly protecting only one third of the protected area. Logging in Romania is a highly conflictual issue, with massive logging in old tree stands in the barely protected "buffer zones" of national parks and in European Natura 2000 protected areas. The European Commission initiated an infringement procedure against Romania in 2020, but has not yet taken serious steps and did not yet sent to the Court of Justice of EU, as Romania has not responded adequately to the EU demands and liquidation of old growth forests in protected areas continues.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Domogled - Valea Cernei national park, Romania
Photo credit: © Matthias Schickhofer / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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