Romania is working to establish a 100,000-hectare national park that would rival some of the most majestic wilderness areas from around the world. Not only will this create Europe’s largest forested national park but also boost ecotourism in support of local communities.
The country has more than 6m hectares of forest, of which a significant portion is still “virgin”, unfragmented areas with no human settlement, home to some of the few remaining sectors of old-growth forest in Europe. But illegal logging has cleared vast swathes of forest, and the destruction continues. This new national park will not only preserve this amazing wilderness, but provide alternate revenue streams instead of logging.
So far, 26,900 hectares of forest and grassland have been bought and protected and more than 4m saplings planted. FCC rangers patrol 75,000 hectares, and this has led to a halt in logging in neighbouring forests too. In another innovative move, related association has bought the hunting rights to an additional 78,000 hectares, to protect wildlife from trophy hunters.
A new park of this size may take decades to realise – but seeing the incredible beauty of what we risk losing and the passionate work being done to save it is quite something to behold.
unknownx500
