Rethinking Liberation against Ecological Disaster: The Destruction of Romanian Old Growth Forests

• In Event: Circuits of Extractivism and Consumption in Eastern Europe

Abstract

The destruction of Romanian old growth forests remains one of the most ignored ecological disasters of our time. At the end of socialism, Romania was one of the largest holders of old growth (“virgin”) forests in the world, owning two thirds of Europe’s old growth forests. By 2018, their surface was reduced to half due to both legal and illegal logging, a process that was accelerated by the global pandemic and intensified in recent years. INGKA Investment, part of IKEA corporation, is the largest single owner of Romanian primeval forests, and activists ranging from local groups to NGOs have called for an end to its practices. Global standards such as the Forest Stewardship Council have been invoked in order to greenwash Ikea’s processes. Even worse, wood processing plants using formaldehyde have created health crises in small towns around the country.
My paper attempts to develop a discourse that can raise global awareness of this ongoing crisis and provide a solution rooted in the experiences and needs of local communities. Rather than preservation, which tends to lock out local communities from the preserved areas, a model of liberation envisions more sustainable relationships between humans and the environment.

Author

• Ileana Nachescu, Rutgers, The State U of New Jersey