Mihai Florin IONESCU

Member of the Board -RFOA

Welcome

* The Romanian Forest Owners Association was created for the ideea to gather all the
romanian forest owners in order to meet each other and to fight togheter for their
common purpose : restitution in integrality.

• R.F.O.A (Romanian Forest Owners Association) was constituted through the

sentence of the Court of Brasov in september 1998 as a romanian juridical person,
not guvernamental, no political, non-profit and it is functioning after the Law
26/2000.

• At the same time R.F.O.A wants that the private forest owners will respect the
silvicultural regulation and the enviroment protection regulations, action that are
also demanded by E.U (European Union)

• Through establishing again the former Forest Owners Association which was
functioning before the comunist regime, we follow the tradition by giving birth
again to the Romanian Forest Owners Association (R.F.O.A) gathering also
juridical as physical persons.

• R.F.O.A is adherent member to E.L.O (European Landowners Organization) until

Romania will be in E.U when she will have the status of a full member.

• Also trough E.L.O, R.F.O.A is in contact with all the national forest- and land-
owners organizations from Europe

• R.F.O.A is protected by O.S.I.M as a mark-organization for “Supporting the

private forest owners in the restitution process, in reprezenting their interest in the
relation with the government , in supporting the landowners in economical
development” .
R.F.O.A has also the function of “ umbrela” for all regional forest-associations
and organizations and for individual persons.

Association

Goals and objectives of R.F.O.A

The situation of Romanian forest
The forest in Europe:
-The percentage of private forest from total forest fund-
Goals and objectives of R.F.O.A

• R.F.O.A represents its members at national and international level, regarding the
recognition of the rights of restitution of all the forests and other areas of
vegetation, of the lakes and mountain empties, the buildings and land for
silvicultural administration and other goods , which were confiscated abusively by
the comunist regime from Romania.
The “true owners” which R.F.O.A supports are the :

a. juridical owners like:

- “composesorate” ; “obsti de razesi” ; “osti motesti” ; “obsti de
cumparare” –which all are traditional forms of ownership in common
- Cultural institutions , charity institutions , churches, monasteries,
schools
- Forest of the villages
b. physical persons who are owners and others

• R.F.O.A main goal is the entire restitution of the forests that were confiscated by
the comunist regime

• Regarding the juridical persons (which were reffered above) R.F.O.A demands the
restitution of the ENTIRE confiscated surface and not the restitution after the
number of his members(or shareholders) which limits the restitution up to 10 ha
per member(person). This kind of restitution (on number of members) goes in
conflict with the definitive civil sentences of the juridical persons and with the
funduary documents of this entities.
• The former Constitution from 1991 and the New Constitution from 2003
guaranties the right for inheritance (so you have to inherit all what has belonging
to your parents or grandparents and not just parts) and the Restitution Laws ( Law
18/1991; Law 69/1997 and Law 1/2000) dispose the restitution of the entire
surface to the juridical persons
• R.F.O.A asks in the name of every forest owner that the funciary Laws has to be
put in fact with no delaying and also the recognition of the whole rights of the
landowners are also pre-requisites for Romania to become member of E.U.
On the same time R.F.O.A demands in the name of the Law 1/2000 that the
Romania state has also to prove trough documents his right of beeing owner on
different surfaces. The fact is that after the statistic of 1930 and later statistics the
Romanian state was owner of just 28% of the forest surface, and not almost 70%
as it is now.
 The situation of the Romanian forest

A.
Forest surfaces belonging to the state 64
Forest surfaces that belongs to owners (other the the state) 31
Forest vegetation on non-forest land (agricultural etc) 5
Total 100

Distribution of forest surfaces after the typ of

ownership in 2004

5%

31%
1
2
3
64%

B.gr.2
Public propriety of Villages and Towns 36
Private propriety of Churches and Schools 5
Private propriety indivizibel (traditional organizations) 27
Individual private propriety 32
Total 100

Distribution of forest land which does not belong to the

state (aprox 2,2 mil ha) in 2004

32%
36%
1
2
3
4

5%
27%
C.Average volume of the wood-mass to 1 hectar forest (qm/ha)
European average 139
National average 218
Fir 395
Resinouse 279
Trees with Leaves 216
Oak 155

Average wood-volume per hectar

500
395 Série1
400
Série2
279
300 Série3
218 216
200 139 155 Série4
100 Série5
Série6
0
1

D.Distribution of the tree-species

Spruce 22
Fir 5
Pine 2
Other resinouse 1
Beech 30
Oak 18
Acacia 4
Other hard trees with leaves(sycamore maple,ash,cerry tree, etc) 13
Linden tree, poplar 3
Other soft trees with leaves 2
 Distribution of trees species

2% 2
3%
13% 22%
3
4% 4
5%
5
6
2%
1%
18% 7
8
30%
9
10

E. Distribution of forest surfaces related to their age

1-20 years 24
21-40 years 20
41-60 years 18
61-80 years 14
81-100 years 9
over 100 years 15

Distribution of forest surfaces related to their age

24
25
20
18 Série1
20
15 Série2
14
Série3
15
percent Série4
9
10 Série5
Série6
5

0
1
Age intervales
Statisticsand forest history before 1948
-After the study “History of Romanian forest” written by prof.Dr.C.C.Giurescu in
1976 the forest surface of Romania was diveded as follows :

Entire forest surface of Romania : 6.486.471 ha 100%

- Forests belonging to the state : 1.942.000 ha 29,43%
- Forests of the “Royal Crown” : 66.492 ha 1,03%
- Villages and Counties forests : 681.197 ha 10,50%
-Churches and monastiries : 467.605 ha 7,21%
-“Eforii” and Foundations : 125.628 ha 1,94 %
-“Composesorate” : 655.707 ha 10,11%
-“Moşneni, rǎzeşi” : 450.566 ha 6,95%
-Private persons and Anonymous Societies : 2.097.276 ha 32,33%

In 1829 the forest surface was 40% from the Romanian teritory (almost 9.700.000
ha) and until 1920 there were masive cuttings until the Silviculturaly Code was
put in power from ower ancestors. The population was educated to respect the
forest and the forest administration was done from forest departments (some
belonging to state and other private).
Between 1948 – 1989 the annual quota of cutting forest was exceeded in some
contantly so in this periode there were cutted in excess 50.000.000 mc and the
forest accesibility was not solved (nowadays we have 2.000.000 ha inaccessible
forests – almost 30%).
 The statistics of forest owned by state in 1933
-Clasification after the typ of forest and type of species of trees
(information collected from the Statistic Annuary of Romania/1933 and from Aurelian Ionescu)
of forestsNo.

TOTAL
SUPRAFAŢA PE SPECII
COUNTY ÎN HA

landsNon-productiv

HaResinouse
empty areasAlpine

Glades

HaDiverse trees
HaBeech

HaAcacia
HaOak
forestTipical

HaSoft species
Alba 17 9409 - 87 - 9496 739 7264 1275 120 - 11
Arad 20 55212 36 2200 728 58176 160 25093 19630 9763 186 380
Argeş 55 57328 500 1111 1485 60424 7327 30022 15627 3851 7 494
Bacău 35 72436 - 2452 379 75267 21017 39667 5472 4980 - 1300
Baia 17 26251 - 1588 50 27889 6000 14263 2174 2054 7 1753
Bălţi 82 16171 - 3085 36 19286 - 191 5551 9232 75 1122
Bihor 17 44948 - 584 134 45666 10591 29649 4070 638 - -
Botoşani 14 11995 - 662 - 12657 - 3507 4724 1279 50 2435
Braşov 7 2728 24 34 111 2897 1832 856 - - 40 -
Brăila 32 12171 - 1884 - 14055 - - 104 80 2266 9721
Buzău 78 31841 23 1372 373 33609 5169 10132 9923 4662 305 1650
Cahul 27 9960 - 1149 - 11109 - - 7687 1864 - 409
Caliacra 53 24740 - 963 61 25764 - - 18030 6490 - 220
Caraş 9 59730 - 566 355 60651 1447 42813 9790 5680 - -
Câmpulung - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cernăuţi 4 2369 - 116 7 2492 - 1215 200 943 9 2
Cetatea 4 764 - 259 9 1032 - - - 75 48 641
Alba
Ciuc 5 9405 - 394 528 10327 6633 1992 - 780 - -
Cluj 9 12522 - 477 37 13036 9494 2232 572 224 - -
Constanţa 39 13478 - 4027 270 17775 - - 6164 1751 1976 3587
Covurlui 14 4083 - 1510 - 5593 - - 2614 489 - 980
Dâmboviţa 92 36376 3513 1074 100 41063 4285 8230 18344 4651 20 846
Dolj 68 32376 - 2643 - 36019 - - 20205 3233 5440 3498
Dorohoi 12 6160 - 356 31 6547 - 1686 1766 2310 10 388
Durosloi 150 67078 - 1809 - 68887 - - 40845 24877 - 1356
Făgăraş 15 7153 - 89 - 7242 4408 2617 9 96 - 23
Fălciu 19 12576 - 1028 46 13650 - 484 3417 7772 - 903
Gorj 28 45824 2200 781 25 48830 8652 24923 8674 3553 - 22
Hotin 132 41975 24 2348 262 44609 - 2078 20946 14043 776 4132
Hunedoara 91 93253 218 1371 674 95516 34103 48397 6362 2681 - 1710
Ialomiţa 45 13945 - 1985 - 15930 - - 2278 1019 3595 7053
Iaşi 32 18819 - 989 83 19891 - 3360 4162 10235 104 958
Ilfov 54 22152 - 1027 12 23191 - - 10383 7666 1322 2781
Ismail 1 60 - 15 - 75 - - 10 30 - 20
Lăpuşna 97 56696 - 2521 360 59577 - - 31000 24682 449 565
Maramureş 11 40529 8068 448 81 49126 23327 14851 1906 440 - 5
Mehedinţi 45 31822 - 1444 166 33432 - 1873 22785 4132 2417 615
Mureş 12 41331 - 1079 131 42541 24429 10734 1729 3589 - 850
Muscel 60 50983 10973 284 161 62401 11136 29763 7071 2940 - 73
Năsăud - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Neamţ 44 140906 214 3014 603 144737 63036 57793 5284 14019 - 774
Odorhei - - - - - - - - - - - -
Olt 36 8322 - 1202 - 9524 - - 6010 1982 - 330
Orhei 108 32662 - 1327 180 34169 - 229 13973 18372 4 84
Prahova 88 33256 1863 1077 218 36414 1414 13616 12825 4239 9 1153
Putna 19 26822 - 745 108 27675 7415 11899 5417 1910 - 1081
Rădăuţi 11 7131 1623 109 2 8867 6786 222 43 80 - -
R.Sărat 34 14253 - 706 43 15002 1349 5670 3625 2926 - 685
Roman 18 7828 - 348 - 8176 - 3288 525 3042 - 975
Romanaţi 29 12816 - 1272 61 14179 - - 3356 2852 1050 2588
Sălaj 2 806 - - - 806 - 616 - 160 - -
Satu Mare 15 32300 53 586 328 33267 2351 21133 6499 2153 - 164
Severin 36 131243 52 1803 1700 134798 20125 80247 24353 6518 - -
Sibiu 8 31035 8368 1034 228 40725 27004 3195 836 - - -
Someş 4 20706 704 655 1 22066 2634 18072 - - - -
Soroca 83 15828 - 1403 161 17392 - - 11119 4679 - 30
Storojineţ 1 146 41 6 - 193 146 - - - - -
Suceava 1 1650 - 123 - 1775 80 330 240 835 - 165
Târnava 4 1206 - 8 2 1216 30 1004 57 115 - -
Mare
Târnava 1 318 - - 3 321 - 141 177 - - -
Mică
Tecuci 22 9717 - 600 356 10673 - 1916 3528 2570 475 1228
Teleorman 29 9812 - 497 160 10469 - - 4407 2923 83 2399
Tighina 23 21133 - 2819 473 24425 - - 11072 3966 3972 2123
Timiş 14 18943 - 566 327 19836 - - 15477 3322 - 144
Trei 2 7224 220 405 - 7849 4210 2841 - - - 173
Scaune
Tulcea 53 70968 - 4024 651 76643 - - 24033 40866 - 6069
Turda 10 19283 - 145 27 19455 12376 6402 281 24 - -
Tutova 16 10067 - 648 94 10809 - 1874 5216 2772 - 205
Vaslui 24 10339 - 353 9 10701 - 3410 2224 4544 - 161
Vâlcea 47 43702 5 666 48 44421 4430 21297 12368 5367 - 240
Vlaşca 57 32885 - 1299 10 34194 - - 21004 4934 456 6491
TOTAL 2 186998 38724 7393 1354 199550 33433 613117 50854 311074 2515 77765
342 6 3 2 5 5 4 1