The local authorities registered a total of 34,870 cases of illegal logging in 2015, which means an average of 96 cases per day.

The number represented a sharp increase from the 2013-2014 period, when Romania registered 62 such cases per day, or 2012 when the number stood at 50 cases per day, according to a Greenpeace Romania report. In 2009-2011, Romania registered 30 cases per day.

Arges county leads the top of counties with the highest number of cases of illegal logging, with 3,087 cases (8.85% of the total), followed by Vrancea – 2,893 (8.30% of the total), and Bacau – 1,882 (5.40%). Arges county also registered the highest number of cases of illegal logging investigated by the authorities in 2013-2014 and 2009-2011.

Over 30% of all cases of illegal logging recorded nationwide in 2015 were classified as crimes, and 68% were investigated as misdemeanors for which the authorities applied sanctions of some EUR 6.6 million.

Most of the 11,060 crimes registered nationwide were reported in Bacau (697), Arges (691), and Gorj (676) counties.

In terms of sanctions applied, Arges county again ranked first with total fines of some EUR 600,900, followed by Olt county with EUR 526,444, and Ilfov with total sanctions of EUR 451,888. These three counties accounted for almost a quarter of the sanctions’ total value (23.94%).

Romanians made nearly 20,000 calls to the emergency number 112 in 2015 to verify the legality of timber transports. More than 3,380 of the transports (17%) were not registered in the database of the system to prevent illegal logging (SUMAL), as required by law.

Gorj county recorded the highest number of calls – 2,761, followed by Brasov -1,940, and Hunedoara – 1,329.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com