Developments in the Romanian Forestry and Its Linkages with Other Sectors
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Available online at www.notulaebotanicae.ro Print ISSN 0255-965X; Electronic ISSN 1842-4309 Not. Bot. Hort. Agrobot. Cluj 37 (2) 2009, 14-21 Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca Developments in the Romanian Forestry and its Linkages with other Sectors Ioan Vasile ABRUDAN1) , Viorel MARINESCU1) , Ovidiu IONESCU1) Florin IORAS2) , Sergiu Andrei HORODNIC3) , Radu SESTRAS4) 1) Transilvania University, 1 Sirul Beethoven St., 500123 Brasov, Romania; [email protected] 2) Buckinghamshire New University, Queen Alexandra Road, Bucks HP11 2JZ - High Wycombe, United Kingdom; [email protected] 3) University “Stefan cel Mare”, 13 University St., 720229 Suceava, Romania; [email protected] 4) University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 3-5 Manastur St., 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania; [email protected] Abstract The evolution of the forestry sector in the last two decades in Romania has been significantly influenced by the post 1989 political and economic changes, forest restitution and the European Union accession process. Based on the analysis of forestry statistics, legislation and institutional changes this paper underlines the main developments in the forestry sector in the last twenty years and the linkages with other sectors that had an impact on its development. The significant change in forest ownership (based on which 45% of the Romanian forest is nowadays in non-state hands), the unprecedented re-organisation of the forest sector through the institutional separation of the regulatory, control and forest management functions, the changes in forest administration (including the establishment of more than 110 private forest districts) and the full privatisation of the wood harvesting and processing sector complemented by foreign investments have shaped the forest sector development in a context in which the forest resource remained almost unchanged. Major developments have been recorded in the establishment and management of large protected areas as National Forest Administration Romsilva is currently administrating 22 national and nature parks. Both positive and negative interactions of forestry with environmental protection, wood processing, agriculture, rural development, road infrastructure and tourism sectors have also impacted the evolution of the forest sector. Development policy options recommended by authors include among others the strengthening of the public authority responsible for forestry, reorganisation of the state forest administration and supporting the access of forest owners to the national and EU funding and compensation schemes for forestry. Keywords: cross-sectoral, forest policy, land restitution, Romania FORESTRY SECTOR: BASIC FACTS Tab. 1. Main features of Romania’s forests Total forest and other wooded land area 6.649 million ha Romania’s forests and other wooded lands cover about Forest ownership (June 2009): 29% of the country (for the main features see Table 1) and State-owned forests 55% include some of the largest tracts of natural forests still re- Non-state forests 45% maining in Central and Eastern Europe. Forest types: Forests have had an important role in Romania’s eco- Coniferous (especially spruce) 30% nomic development, especially in the rural area, provid- Beech 31% ing an important source of income from wood harvesting, Oaks 18% wood processing and non-timber forest product indus- Other 21% tries (Poynton et al., 2000). Compared to other countries National forest stock 1,347 million m3 in Central and Eastern Europe, forestry based sector and 3 industries are still a significant contributor to the national Annual growth 5.4 m /ha-year economy: 3.5% contribution to GDP in 2007 (UNECE, Geographical distribution of forests: 2009). Mountains 65% Hills 27% Forest area Plains 8% According to the provisions of the recently approved Functional distribution (2009): Forest Code (Law 46/2008), forest is defined as an area of Protection forests (not protected areas) 51% minimum 0.25 ha covered by trees whose height at matu- Production forests 49% rity is at least 5m, under normal growing conditions. All Forest area with no active intervention 161 thousands ha Abrudan, I. V. et al. / Not. Bot. Hort. Agrobot. Cluj 37 (2) 2009,14-21 15 such areas are included in the so called “national forest harvesting, 67,000 in the woodworking industry, 21,000 fund”. It is also considered forest the area covered by forest in the pulp and paper industry and 104,000 in the furni- protection belts, dwarf pine communities and the mead- ture industry (Istratescu et al., 2001). By 2008, the total ows covered by trees with a canopy closure index higher number of employees in the forest based sector and indus- than 0.4 (Law 46/2008). Forest area has remained approx- tries decreased to circa 161,000 (UNECE, 2009). In the imately unchanged in the last two decades in Romania: period 1991 - mid 2009, the number of employees in state 6.6-6.7 million ha of forests and land partially covered by forest management (National Forest Administration - forests (National Institute of Statistics 1991, 2008). The NFA Romsilva) decreased from 39,561 in 1991 to 27,098 slight fluctuations of statistical data for the last two de- in 1999 and about 21,400 in mid 2009 (Regia Nationala cades reflect the statistical reporting inconsistencies rather a Padurilor Romsilva, 2009). Whilst the significant reduc- than the real changes in the forest and forest land area in tion in the period 1991-1999 was due to the restructuring Romania. However, a slight increase in the afforestation of of NFA Romsilva and the externalisation of some of its degraded agricultural lands after 2000 should be noticed previous activities, afterwards the restitution of forests has (Abrudan et al., 2003; Abrudan, 2006). been another factor which affected the decrease of jobs in state forest administration. Forest ownership The contribution of the forestry (including the pro- After the fall of communist regime in December 1989, cessing sector) to GDP ranged between 3.5 and 4.5% the Government embarked on a program of land restitu- in the last decade (National Institute of Statistics, 1999- tion. As an initial measure, under Law 18/1991, approxi- 2008). The export value and volume of wood products mately 353,000 hectares of forest land were returned to and furniture increased continuously in the last ten years, around 400,000 pre-1948 individual owners (up to 1ha despite some fluctuations of pulp, paper and cardboard ex- per owner). In 2000, another land restitution law (Law port (Ioras and Abrudan, 2006). The annual export value 1/2000) was passed by the Parliament and according to of forest products in the last three years (including pro- this law all community, town and communal forests should cessed timber and furniture) exceeded 2 billion US$ mak- be restituted to their former owners. The restitution was ing Romania a net exporter of wood based products. For limited to 10 ha for individuals and 30 ha for churches, example, in the recent years Romania exported about 80% even if the size of their ownership before the 1948 nation- of its furniture production and the export of furniture was alization was larger than these imposed limits; protected mainly directed to the major markets of the world: Ger- forests were exempted from restitution. The third restitu- many, France, Holland, Italy, Austria, Great Britain, USA tion law (Law 247/2005) was passed in 2005 and accord- etc. (Cismaru, 2005). ing to its provisions all forest (including protected areas) The non-pecuniary values of forests are, however, con- should be restituted to the former owners irrespective of siderably larger than the financial values, but traditional size, location and ownership type. Although not finalised accounting methods have tended to mask this. A study yet, the implementation of the restitution laws determined commissioned by the World Bank in 1999 (Poynton et al., a significant change in forest ownership in Romania: by 2000) showed that the annual value of products and ser- the end of June 2009, more than 45% of the Romanian vices (including the environmental ones) provided by the forests were in non-state ownership and it is foreseen that, Romanian forests was around 3.1 billion US $. at the end of the restitution process, approximately 60% of the country’s forests will be owned by other owners than Forest and nature conservation the state (Regia Nationala a Padurilor Romsilva, 2009). The Romanian Network of Protected Areas covers more than 1.65 million ha or about 6.9% of the country’s Forestry production area. Apart from the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve In the period 1991-2008 the annual allowable cut var- there are other 27 large protected areas - national parks ied between 15.5 and 18.5 million m3. It has never been and nature parks (22 of them administrated by NFA Rom- exceeded by the actual harvest, excepting 1996, as a result silva), including 134 nature reserves and natural monu- of 1995 windthrow (Abrudan et al., 2005). ments, and covering 1.17 million ha. More than 693 na- The harvesting and wood processing sector is fully pri- ture reserves and natural monuments are outside the large vatised and there are more than 300 enterprises with more protected areas and cover 102,534 ha (Borlea et al., 2006; than 50 employees performing timber processing (except Abrudan et al., 2005). About 10.4% of the national for- furniture sector) whilst the number of wood processing est area is included in the national and nature parks and companies employing less than 50 employees exceeded 160.429 ha of forests are strictly protected. 5,000 in 2005 (National Institute of Statistics, 2006). In Before 1999 none of the large protected areas had le- 2005 there were about 2,900 companies which produced gally established administrative structures in place, except furniture or component parts for furniture. Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. This situation was due About 28,000 people were employed in 2000 in for- to the poor capacity of the state budged to finance the ad- est administration and management, circa 15,000 in wood ministration of protected areas.