In August 2024, a drone operated by environmental activists flew over the Ceahlău mountain range in the Romanian Carpathians. The footage revealed newly built logging roads, clear-cut slopes, and wide corridors cutting through a forest area that is officially designated as a protected Natura 2000 site on European maps. What the drone captured became further evidence of a troubling reality: while Brussels promotes the European Green Deal and expects other countries to comply with anti-deforestation rules, some of Europe’s last remaining ancient forests continue to be destroyed within the European Union itself.
The Romanian Carpathians are one of the last large wilderness forest regions in Europe. They contain the largest remaining areas of old-growth and primary forests in the EU. The region is home to the European Union’s largest populations of brown bears, wolves, and lynx, and many forest ecosystems have remained largely unchanged since the Middle Ages. Today, these forests are at the center of a conflict between Europe’s environmental commitments and the economic interests of the timber industry.
In December 2024, EuroNatur, Agent Green, and the Environmental Investigation Agency published a report highlighting the scale of the problem. According to their findings, more than 4.7 million cubic meters of timber were extracted from Romania’s primary and old-growth forests between 2021 and 2024. Logging activities affected nearly 140,000 hectares, with almost half of this area located within Natura 2000 sites.
Environmental groups are concerned not only about the scale of logging but also about the methods used to justify it. One of the most common mechanisms is so-called sanitary logging, officially carried out to address forest diseases and bark beetle infestations. In practice, environmental organizations argue that this tool is often used to support commercial timber harvesting in forests that should receive special protection. Sanitary and progressive logging operations are increasingly creating large treeless areas, even inside national parks and protected nature reserves.
Another alarming issue is the phenomenon known as “missing timber.” In 2019, Romanian authorities acknowledged the results of the National Forest Inventory, which estimated that around 20 million cubic meters of timber disappear annually beyond officially approved harvesting volumes. More recent estimates put the figure at approximately 17 million cubic meters per year. For comparison, Romania’s official annual timber harvest is about 18 million cubic meters. In other words, actual forest losses may be comparable to the size of the legal timber market. Environmental groups cite this gap as strong evidence that illegal logging is systemic and unlikely to occur without corruption and protection at various levels of government.
As a result, public discussion in Romania increasingly focuses not only on illegal logging but also on the existence of a so-called “timber mafia.” The term has entered political debate. People who attempt to document violations often face threats and violence. In recent years, the country has seen a series of attacks on forest rangers, inspectors, and environmental activists. For many Romanians, illegal logging has become a symbol of weak governance and the state’s inability to enforce the rule of law.
One of the leading figures challenging this system is Romanian environmental activist Gabriel Păun, head of Agent Green. For many years, he has documented logging activities using satellite imagery, drones, and field investigations. His findings have repeatedly been submitted to European environmental institutions. Agent Green, together with EuroNatur and ClientEarth, has provided the European Commission with evidence of systematic forest destruction inside Romania’s protected areas.
A central role in this story is played by Romsilva, the state-owned forestry company that manages a large share of Romania’s public forests. Its activities have repeatedly come under criticism. In December 2020, Member of the European Parliament Thomas Waitz and Gabriel Păun visited Domogled–Valea Cernei National Park and documented logging operations in areas where forest management plans had previously been suspended by court order. According to participants in the mission, logging continued despite legal restrictions and ongoing European procedures against Romania.
This situation has raised growing questions about the role of the European Union. On July 2, 2020, the European Commission launched infringement proceedings against Romania for failing to combat illegal logging and protect Natura 2000 forests. The Commission concluded that Romanian authorities were not effectively monitoring timber origin, were failing to apply sufficient penalties, and were allowing forest management activities without proper assessment of impacts on protected ecosystems. Brussels also pointed to the disappearance of certain protected forest habitats within Natura 2000 areas.
However, years after the procedure began, significant changes have yet to materialize. In February 2023, Member of the European Parliament Viola von Cramon-Taubadel publicly asked the European Commission why the case had still not been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union despite the lack of visible progress. In her inquiry, she highlighted the continuing destruction of Natura 2000 sites and violations of EU Birds and Habitats Directives.
The issue extends far beyond Romania because timber from the Carpathian region enters international supply chains and reaches European markets through major processing companies. Over the years, investigations by journalists and environmental organizations have linked part of this timber to supply chains serving large European companies, including IKEA and major wood-processing groups in Central Europe. The companies reject the allegations and state that they comply with sustainable forestry standards. Critics, however, argue that verifying timber origin is extremely difficult when millions of cubic meters of wood disappear from official records every year.
The paradox is that the European Union is currently positioning itself as a global leader in the fight against deforestation. The new EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products is designed to prevent goods linked to forest destruction from entering the European market. Brussels demands transparency from suppliers in Brazil, Indonesia, and African countries. Yet an uncomfortable question is increasingly being asked: how convincing are these demands if the European Union’s own largest primary forests continue to disappear?
The story of the Romanian Carpathians has become a test case for European environmental policy. It demonstrates that passing new laws is not enough if there is no political will to enforce them. While satellites continue to detect new clearings in the mountains and activist drones reveal additional logging roads inside protected areas, one key question remains unanswered: can the European Union protect its last remaining primary forests, or will the Carpathians become a symbol of a missed opportunity to preserve Europe’s true wilderness?