Regia Naţională a Pădurilor Romsilva or simply Romsilva is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

responsible for dealing with

protection Protection is any measure taken to guard something against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although ...

preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

and

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

of publicly owned

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s of the Romanian state, and the management of

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

grounds. Romsilva owns and manages of forests which represents 65% of all forests in the country. The company has its headquarters in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Activity

Romsilva owns and manages of forests or around 65% of Romania's overall forests. The forests consist mainly of

common beech ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech, is a large, graceful deciduous tree in the beech family with smooth silvery-gray bark, large leaf area, and a short trunk with low branches. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' is a large ...

31.5%,

coniferous trees Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

29.9%,

pedunculate oak ''Quercus robur'', the pedunculate oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It grows on soi ...

18%, different species of hardwood trees 15.7% and various types of softwood trees 4.9%. Other important assets include 214 lodges, of which 187 are introduced in the online accommodation system, and 69 are placed for national and international tourist circuits. The company produced around of

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

and timber products in 2009 of which 90% was exported to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and 10% to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In 2009 Romsilva also harvested 6,750 metric tons of forest berries including

vaccinium myrtillus ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' or European blueberry is a Holarctic realm, holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberr ...

hippophae rhamnoides ''Hippophae rhamnoides'', also known as sea buckthorn, sandthorn, sallowthorn or seaberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeagnaceae, native to cold-temperate regions of Eurasia. It is a spiny deciduous shrub. The plant is used ...

rosa canina ''Rosa canina'', the dog rose, is a variable climbing, wild rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia. Description The dog rose is a deciduous shrub normally ranging in height from , though it can scramble higher into the ...

vaccinium vitis-idaea ''Vaccinium vitis-idaea'' is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family, Ericaceae. It is known colloquially as the lingonberry, partridgeberry, foxberry, mountain cranberry, or cowberry. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throug ...

blackberry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

crataegus monogyna ''Crataegus monogyna'', known as common hawthorn, whitethorn, one-seed hawthorn, or single-seeded hawthorn, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It grows to about tall, producing plant sexuality, hermaphrodite flowers i ...

and

rubus idaeus ''Rubus idaeus'' (raspberry, also called red raspberry or occasionally European red raspberry to distinguish it from other raspberry species) is a red-fruited species of ''Rubus'' native to Europe and northern Asia and commonly cultivated in oth ...

, of which 3,100 metric tons were exported to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Romsilva is also an important

fungus A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

producer, having a total production of 25 metric tons of

chanterelle Chanterelle is the common name of several species of fungi in the genera ''Cantharellus'', ''Craterellus'', ''Gomphus (fungus), Gomphus'', and ''Polyozellus''. They are orange, yellow or white, meaty and funnel-shaped. On the lower surface, mos ...

armillaria mellea ''Armillaria mellea'', commonly known as honey fungus, is an edible basidiomycete fungus in the genus ''Armillaria''. It is a plant pathogen and part of a cryptic species complex of closely related and Morphology (biology), morphologically simila ...

boletus edulis ''Boletus edulis'' (English: cep, penny bun, porcino) is a basidiomycete fungus, and the type species of the genus ''Boletus''. It is prized as an edible mushroom. The fungus produces Basidiospore, spore-bearing basidiocarp, fruit bodies ...

and morchella spongiola in 2009. The company also exported 2,650

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s and 3,000

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Eura ...

s mainly to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Romsilva publishes ''

Revista pădurilor ''Revista pădurilor'' (''Journal of Forests'') is a Romanian peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1882 that has appeared without interruption since 1886, making it the oldest Romanian journal published without interruption and one of ...

'', (webpage has a translation button) the oldest journal published without interruption from Romania and one of the oldest forestry journals in the world. (webpage has a translation button)

Controversy

According to Dimitrova & Buzogány (2014) "Romsilva was regarded as the main culprit behind the dramatic rise in

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

during the last decade, resulting in irreparable losses in forested territories. Its leadership has been accused of illegally contributing to campaign budgets of governing parties and of corrupt decisions in numerous local and national public procurement cases." Corruption within Romsilva is rampant and employees who have spoken out against their corrupt superiors have been threatened and assaulted.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Renewable resource companies established in 1990 Forestry in Romania Forestry agencies (parastatal) Romanian companies established in 1990