Europe's fight with illegal logging: Romania on the frontline

Liviu Pop, is a recent victim of a war that pretty much no one seems to know about.

When we think of illegal logging, we tend to think of the Amazon or maybe southeast Asia, but perhaps not eastern Europe. But Romania contains almost half of Europe's remaining old growth and primeval forest, a vital ecosystem housing bears, wolves, lynx and wildcats.

Boreal Forest in Romania (photo: Wikimedia)

Rangers paying the price:

But it is under threat. The threat comes from illegal loggers who will resort to extreme violence to protect their shady business. The wood they take, ends up around Europe in paper, furniture and the like. Greenpeace Romania estimate that 3 hectares of forest cover is lost every hour in the country from degradation and illegal logging, as well as permitted work.

Pop was a Forest Ranger in the Maramures district of northern Romania, and last week while on duty, he disappeared from contact with his colleagues. Increasingly worried about his whereabouts, his body was found last Wednesday evening in a forest gorge. He had been shot with a hunting rifle - which may have been his own weapon.

A little more than a month earlier, Raducu Garciaia, a Ranger in the Pascani forest district in the northeast of the country, was found near his car with fatal injuries, possibly from an axe. Gabriel Paun, the head of environmental group Agent Green, has been attacked by forestry gangs on several occasions. One time, around four years ago, Paun was attacked in Retezat National Park, and suffered broken ribs and hand, and a cracked skull. His attackers have only just gone to trial.

Romsilva, the state owned forestry company, say they have counted 16 attacks this year alone. Silviu Geana, the head of the Silva Trade Union Federation, says that Rangers are unable to defend themselves, and six Rangers have dies in recent years.

In September 2019, NGO's including Agent Green, ClientEarth and EuroNatr, filed a complaint with the European Commission against the Romanian government for illegal logging practices, which they say contravene EU laws on nature conservation. The government says it has boosted the fight against such logging, with better inspection and monitoring introduced, although the EU say big challenges remain ahead.

The scale of Romania's forests:
There is no reliable inventory of the unique areas of wilderness and forest in Romania; and there is no adequate systems in place to protect such areas either. A 2005 survey by Dutch scientists did complete an inventory and mapping exercise, but it seems it contained many errors and omissions.

More was done in 2016 with a new government catalogue was created, with criteria for identifying virgin and quasi-virgin forest. Numerous studies have been handed in by Agent Green, Greenpeace and WWF, but only a few of them have been accepted - leading to complaints that the authorities are stalling, and that the government is under pressure from logging companies to ensure such areas are not designated.

These old forests used to be locally managed for firewood, crafts and housebuilding; but years of state backed lax regulation and corruption led to this being eroded. The giveaway was when factory processing of timber was far outstripping the legal timber cutting quotas. Locals started to sell their forest stakes to the big buyers, perhaps under pressure, and the old forests were becoming more easily broken up.

Environmental fight back?
Environmentalists have started to fight back, by trying to expose the unsustainability of the practices going on. There is now a Forest Inspector website, that makes transportation data available, and people can now report shipments they suspect might be illegal. 

But the corruption still largely remains, and there is a fear of reprisals for anyone thinking about speaking out.

In September 2017, a truck leaving the Fagaras mountains was stopped by activists. A subsequent investigation found that over-cutting in the area has been at a staggering 4,100 percent!

The World Heritage Commission recently recognised 24,000 hectares of beech forests as having "outstanding universal value." But activists have identified logging in buffer zones of several World Heritage areas, such as in Domogled National Park and Sinca Woods.

Sarmisegetuza Regia (photo: Wikimedia)

Sarmisegetuza Regia is the site of the ancient Dacian capital, and contains a ruined citadel over 2,000 years old - known as 'Romania's Macchu Pichu'. Nature and culture are bound together here - and at times quite literally - as the roots from trees surrounding the fortress help bind and stabilise the soil. Yet the government approved the cutting down of 100 trees, and the big logging tractors sent in to do the job caused irreparable damage. Once drone footage showed that many of these trees were well away from tourist trails (one key defence had been to remove dying trees for health and safety purposes), and this started to cause a stir among the Romanian public.

While much attention has been given to the horrific destruction going on in the Amazon's forests over the last few decades, the end result still seems to be largely unchanged - acre after acre of forest continues to disappear. But if the action has moved to our own (relative) back door - perhaps the activists of Europe will be joined by the rest of the public, and can make some noise and force some changes? To do that, there needs to be awareness - so spread the word please.......

Research:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50094830 
https://theecologist.org/2018/mar/07/protecting-romanias-primeval-forests 

The plastic we eat!

The humble lugworm may not figure in our thinking very often - but to researchers of microplastics, it can be a very illuminating species.

Lugworm (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Researchers from Royal Holloway (University of London) find them as they do their research on the coasts and islands of Scotland. Lugworms ingest anything they come across, including plastic, as they go along swallowing sand. And this ingested microplastic (anything less than 5mm long) gets passed up the food chain into birds and fish.

There are many unanswered questions around what impacts microplastics have, but these researchers are looking at how plastic is getting into the marine ecosystem. They are analysing the types of plastic polymer they are finding in the washed up plastic they find in Scotland, to try and guess where it might be coming from.

Microplastic is now considered to be one of the most widespread contaminants in the world, being found everywhere from deep oceans and in whale stomachs, to arctic regions. 

The Plastic Age?

Following on from the Bronze and Iron Ages, might we be entering the Plastic Age? Is this what our phase of civilisation will be remembered for?

Dr Jennifer Brandon, from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego, is studying sedimentary rocks off the Californian coast. "I found this exponential increase in microplastics being left behind in our sediment record.... The plastic we're using is getting out into the ocean and we're leaving it behind in our fossil record."

(photo: ecomagazine.com)

This is incredible to think about - that centuries down the line, this (plastic) will be used by future geologists and archaeologists, as our geological marker!

Plastic in the wilderness:

Airborne microplastics have been found in the Pyrenees mountains (on the French / Spanish border), an area previously considered to be pristine wilderness. Researchers from Strathclyde and Toulouse Universities estimate that an average of 365 plastic pieces per m2, per day, are winding up in the Pyrenees - and some of them may be travelling up to 60 miles to get there!

Plastic in animals:

So if microplastic particles are being ingested by plankton and coral polyps; how much bio-accumulation (the gradual accumulation of substances in an organism) is going on by the time you go up the food chain to the larger fish species? If you buy a nice piece of fish, like a tuna steak, how much plastic has made its way into that animal?

University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratories examined 50 animals from 10 species of dolphin, seal and whale, and found that they all had microplastics in their gut. 84% of these were synthetic fibres, and the rest were fragments of food packaging and plastic bottles.

Lead researcher, Sarah Nelms, said, "The number of particles in each animal was relatively low suggesting they eventually pass through the digestive system or are regurgitated."

How does it affect us?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report in August this year, which basically says that there is no conclusive proof that plastic particles found in tap and bottled water pose any type of health hazard to humans - but - more studies are needed.

They found that larger, and most smaller, particles pass through the human body without being absorbed. But they admit that this is based on limited information, as research has only begun in recent years, and also that there is no standardisation to tests being used. So that means that there is no risk, 'at current levels.'

WHO say that proper water treatment processes remove at least 90% of microplastics, and that water companies should focus on the known risks; so in the short-term that means faecal matter, as this is responsible for at least one million deaths each year.

We'll leave the last word to Dr Brandon, "We know that there's a lot of microplastic and we keep finding it everywhere we look for it. But the implications of the health effects of it and how it really affects animals and humans, we're only just starting to scratch the surface of those questions."

Research:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49798057 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47947235
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-47078733
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49430038

Is Ryanair really so green?

I stumbled on a story recently, from earlier this summer, where Ryanair has claimed to be the greenest airline in Europe.

(Wikipedia)

They say that their latest carbon figures show that they are emitting an average of 66g CO2 per passenger, per km flown. This is down from 82g ten years ago, and they have promised it will be down close to 60g per passenger by 2030. According to their figures, this compares to Lufthansa's (Europe's biggest aviation group after Ryanair) rate of 120g, and 110-119g posted by Turkish Airlines and IAG (owners of Aer Lingus and British Airways) - while budget rivals EasyJet, are at around 70-79g.

The 66g figure comes from 14.2 million passengers carried a total of 17,789m km, emitting around 1,167kt (kiloton) of carbon emissions. They point to an average family car emitting 248g/km and the EU target of 130g/km - both helping the claim that they are the cleanest airline in Europe. They point to their high load factors (seats sold) of 96%, as compared to the 80-85% rates posted by most other major airlines; and also that they have one of the youngest airline fleets in the sector (thy are all 737's with an average age of 6.5 years).

Ryanair say that they pay their environmental taxes to dispel the myth that the aviation does not pay such debts. Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs, says, "[66g is] almost half the rate of other flag carrier European airlines..... Ryanair paid over €540m in environmental taxes in 2018 and will pay over €630m in 2019. This equates to €4.12 per passenger, which is 11% of Ryanair's average air fare."

New Boeing 737 MAX200 (Wikipedia)

They are now investing $20bn in their fleet, with 210 all new Boeing 737 "gamechanger" (Max200) on order, that will replace existing 737-800 models. The new aircraft will carry 4% more passengers, whilst burning 16% less fuel, 20% less CO2 and 40% less noise emissions. 

That 2% of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions come from flying, does not seem to be disputed. Aviation emissions have risen by 26.3% in the last five years in 2018 it increased by 3.9% year on year - at a time when all other industries in the Emissions Trading Scheme have dropped by 4.1%.

Jacobs says the solution is not with the airlines - "If Brussels wants to reduce CO2 by 5% in the next 12 months they just need to regulate air traffic control instead of leaving it to member states." This, they say, is because disruption caused by air traffic shortages and strikes causes aircraft to have to take longer routes, meaning they burn up to 20% more fuel.

Ryanair hits the Top Ten!

But these claims came soon after, in April, they hit the European Top Ten - for the worst emitters! This is an unwanted hit - until now, this had been the exclusive domain of coal plants. Ryanair's carbon emissions went up by 6.9% in 2018, and have in fact gone up 49% overall since 2013. Now of course, absolute emissions rates will almost always punish organisations that grow - which is why Ryanair, as most other companies, use normalised data (i.e. they divide the emissions by a normalising factor - usually turnover, but in this case in a per passenger way).

A study of small European airports by Transport & Environment, claims that the EU has effectively allowed Ryanair's carbon emissions to keep on rising, and has also subsidised many of the failing small airports across Europe. This, they say, is facilitating the rise in emissions. They say there is documented evidence that 35 such airports are receiving subsidies, and 17 deal with fewer than 500,000 passengers per year (the conservative estimate for profitability). Paris Vatry, for example, had only 108,000 passengers in 2017, and received €3m in subsidies. (Full report can be found here).

Andrew Murphy of Transport & Environment, says, "With governments struggling to rein in the sector's climate impact, the first step should be calling a halt to subsidies which are adding more fuel to the fire.... Ending state aid is a start but we also need to end aviation's tax holiday and encourage the uptake of zero emissions aviation fuels."

So - are Ryanair's claims nothing but greenwash - or are they unfairly picked on for being a healthy and expanding company? What is true, is that the whole sector, from governments and industry bodies, through to the airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airport operators, all need to play a part in this. We still fly (and more than ever) - and this trend is unlikely to be bucked anytime soon; so what else can be done across the board to remedy this major issue?

Research:

https://ukaviation.news/ryanair-cuts-co2-emissions-to-just-66g-per-passenger/ 

https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/ryanair-pollution-eu-top-10-polluters-list-first-airline-carbon-emissions-504373 

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/ryanair-claims-it-is-greenest-airline-in-europe-on-emissions-1.3914840 

http://bright-green.org/2019/07/21/the-eu-is-subsidising-ryanairs-carbon-emissions/