Romania’s Minister of Environment says illegal logging stories are untrue

The stories about so-called illegal logging in Romania are untrue, the minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Barna Tanczos, said during the debate of a simple motion against him in the Chamber of Deputies. He argued that no one could show him a case of illegal mass deforestation that occurred in 2021 or 2022, according to Agerpres.

On April 11, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the simple motion against the environment minister filed the previous week by the reformist party USR (Save Romania Union). The ruling majority made of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL) and Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR) voted against the motion.

“Minister Tanczos Barna must step down, while we still have forests to protect,” USR said in a press release on April 5, when its MPs filed the motion against the environment minister. USR argued that minister Tanczos was accountable for illegal logging, environmental damage, the state’s incapacity to see the benefits the green economy can offer, and for the “arrogant contempt” shown to the Civil Society when drawing attention to these issues.

“This motion wouldn't have been necessary had Mr. Tanczos, who is currently Minister of the Environment, had the courtesy to step down after a Recorder report showed the Romanians the kind of figure is in charge of this country's forests. Incompetence might be a legitimate excuse for him. We have seen cases of other incompetent ministers. However, the signatories of this motion believe that there is more to it than that. This incompetence is combined with militant ill will, cynicism, and deliberate efforts to deliberately sabotage one's own mandate. The Minister has no respect neither for the citizens of this country he has come to govern nor for the legacy we must all leave to our successors,” according to the USR motion.

USR filed its motion after a journalistic investigation by Recorder focussed on how the environment minister dismissed the head of the Forestry Guard in Timis, who had been very active in fighting illegal logging activities in his district. The minister didn’t state his arguments for this decision saying that a control was underway and that he dismissed the former chief commissioner to make sure he wouldn’t interfere with this control. However, apparently the Forestry Guard’s actions had upset some MPs from the PSD and PNL.