News
Romanian virgin beech forests nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage list
The Romanian government, Greenpeace and WWF have started the nomination process for the virgin beech forests of Romania to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The designation process and all the procedures related to it will take approximately two years.
According to a calculation made by Greenpeace Romania, based on a study of the Forest Research and Management Institute, around 218,000 hectares of forest in Romania could be considered virgin forests.
The UNESCO World Heritage list already includes virgin beech forests, mostly in Germany and in the Carpathians (in Slovakia and Ukraine). The nominated primeval Romanian forests (Strambu Baiut - Grosii Tiblesului in Maramures, and Sinca in the Fagaras mountains among them) would increase the representation of this ecosystem in the protection list.
The evolution of these ecosystems has happened without human intervention. They are an exceptional example of complex, undisturbed woodlands and contain a high biological diversity.
The WWF news item on this topic can be found at this link: