The ‘Timber Mafia’ in Romania: comparing the public discourse and law-enforcement perspective

• In Event: Green Criminology #5- Environmental crimes and economic activities

Abstract

Illegal logging was a central concern in some of the largest public protests in Romania in the 2010s. With exposés on ‘the timber mafia’ and its links to high-level corruption in the country, the media stoked the flames of public alarm arising from persistent illegal logging in Romania’s forests since the collapse of communism. Reports indicate that as part of the country’s communist legacy, the extensive logging of illegally restituted forest lands by opportunistic groups of criminals and cany entrepreneurs is enabled by corrupt forest administrators and state officials at various levels. At the same time, the phenomenon is associated with a high level of violence, primarily targeting foresters and some environmental activists. Meanwhile, academic research on the topic describes timber barons, exploitation and clientelism, corruption, fiefdoms, clans and organised crime groups involved in illegal logging in Romania. And yet, as indicated by primary research, law-enforcement tends to frame the issue as a localised matter of environmental management, rather than an organised crime problem. Where criminalisation does take place, it primarily affects those who already find themselves vulnerable and exploited. This paper examines the perspectives of law-enforcement on the seriousness of illegal logging in Romania, and the extent to which a heavily Westernised conceptualisation of organised crime has become entrenched in policing practice and discourse. The preliminary findings indicate a) a rehashing of the alien conspiracy theory; b) the excessive criminalisation of the vulnerable individuals involved in the harvesting stage; and c) the lack of a concerted response to those creating the illicit demand and the ones who enable them. Together, these elements reflect the same paradigm which dominates the global policing of other, more stereotypical forms of organised crime, like drug trafficking and trafficking in persons.

Author

• Alexandra Neag, Anglia Ruskin University