Five environmental NGOs - Declic, Greenpeace, Agent Green, Peisaj Deschis and the Platform for Climate Adaptation - are urging the Environment Ministry to publish the full map of areas identified for strict protection, after the Ministry put forward a draft listing 472 priority zones covering only 2.54% of Romania's territory, far below the EU-committed 10%.
The NGOs say over 90% of the proposed areas are already inside existing protected sites, while only about 59,800 hectares - 0.25% of Romania - come from outside current protected zones. They argue that specialists spent three years mapping valuable forests, rivers, grasslands and ecosystems, yet the Ministry has not released the full set of maps, according to Agerpres.
The groups warn that without full data, the public cannot assess how the Ministry reduced the experts' initial findings to the current 2.54% list. They say genuine consultation is impossible if citizens and experts see only the Ministry's selection.
Antoniu Bumb of Declic says: "If 2.54% is only the first stage, then the nature identified for future stages must be known and protected now."
Ciprian Galusca, head of the Platform for Climate Adaptation, adds: "We are asking for something simple: to see the entire map. After three years of publicly funded studies, citizens have the right to know what was identified and what happened to it."
Greenpeace Romania campaigner Valentin Salageanu states: "Romsilva and ANAR used an illegal veto to block hundreds of thousands of hectares. Without an immediate moratorium and full GIS maps, Romania's most valuable natural heritage will be destroyed."
Agent Green president Gabriel Paun says: "These 10% must be Romania's ecological backbone. If after three years we see only 2.54% and the rest stays hidden, we don't have transparency - we have a mutilated picture."
The NGOs call on the Ministry to include, at minimum, all state-owned areas validated by experts in this first stage, to explain why they are missing from the proposal, and to clarify the role of Romsilva and ANAR in excluding mapped zones. They also demand an immediate moratorium on logging in expert-identified forests not included in Stage I, warning that valuable ecosystems risk being degraded before Romania reaches the 2030 target.
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