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Open letter condemns the killing of Romanian forest rangers as illegal logging continues

Forest landscape in Transylvania. Photo: Bergadder (Pixabay, CCO Commons)

Following the killings of the two forest rangers Liviu Pop and Raducu Gorcioaia, who were out investigating illegal logging, Protect the Forest and 45 other NGOs wrote to Romania’s Presidency and incoming Government. The NGOs call on them to publicly condemn the recent killings of the forest rangers.

The NGOs also call for a thorough and unbiased investigation to be carried out into both cases in order to identify those responsible and to bring them to justice. Steps must be taken to ensure that not only are those who work to defend forests and the environment provided with adequate legal protections, but that those protections are consistently enforced in practice.

Finally, CSOs urge the Romanian Government to take concrete action to dismantle the Romanian ‘timber mafia’ network, and to strengthen and ensure compliance with legislation relating to forest protection and biomass sustainability.

Read the open letter from the 46 NGOs here.

Sign petition to demand justice for killed forest ranger Liviu Pop in Romania (via WeMove.EU) here.

Sign petition to protect Romania’s last old-growth forests (via YouMove.EU) here.

Watch film clips and documentary about the valuable forests in Romania and illegal logging (via EuroNature Foundation) here.

Read WWF’s ‘Illegal Logging in Romania Turns Violent: Second Forest Ranger in a Month Murdered” here.