ENVIRONMENT: Where Europeans Are Still in the Dark

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marian Chiriac

BUCHAREST, Jan 18 2006 (IPS) - Fifty-seven-year-old Mihai Petre has lived with the dark and cold much of his life. For years now he has been trying to get a loan to buy a generator for his house, but no bank has wanted to advance him a loan.

Petre is a European, one of millions of residents of the cold Carpathian mountains that span seven eastern European countries.

“Many mountain people are among the poorest, hungriest citizens of Romania,” he told IPS. “They face massive barriers to development – rugged terrain, poor communications and transportation systems, political marginalisation and limited access to capital..”

Many remote villages in the Carpathian mountains still have no electricity. Others have no telephones or gas supply. And many have no motor vehicles, just carts and horses.

The situation is particularly bad in Romania, one of the Carpathian countries along with Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. It is one of the poorest countries of the region, with a per capita monthly income of 250 dollars.

Since 1990, Romania and most of the former communist countries in Eastern Europe have been facing new difficulties. Privatisation of forests has led to more logging than the environment can sustain. Deforestation is threatening both people and wildlife.

Poaching is now out of control in several areas, and there are few curbs on excessive hunting. “It is a sad reality but the biggest threat to the Carpathian people’s traditional life, and to the survival of wildlife, is not predatory beast, but predatory man,” Mihai Petre said.

After the Alps the Carpathian mountains are the most extensive mountain system in Europe. They are home to a diversity of peoples. They include also Europe’s biggest reserve of pristine forests. The forests are home to brown bears, wolves, bison, lynx, eagles and some 200 unique plant species.

New hope has arisen by way of an environmental plan to protect the Carpathian mountains, hailed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a blueprint for conservation, that came into force at the beginning of January. But Romania which has half the mountain range, has not ratified the plan yet.

The convention seeks to protect wildlife, preserve the culture of about 18 million people in the region, and promote forestry, mining and tourism without spoiling the environment.

“This legally living treaty is aimed at balancing the economic needs of the people with the need to conserve the environment. In doing so it can play a critical part in delivering sustainable development and offers a blueprint for other mountain regions in the world,” said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP at the launch of the plan earlier this month.

“Romania has to ratify as soon as possible,” said Emilian Burdusel, president of the Pro Natura organisation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). “Authorities need money and expertise to put in practice all the policies aiming at conservation, sustainable use and restoration of biological and landscape diversity throughout the Carpathians, and the Convention is a good starting point in this direction.”

The agreement has yet to be ratified also by Poland and by Serbia and Montenegro.

The Carpathian convention aims to promote environmentally sound agricultural and forestry measures, local breeds of domestic animals and locally cultivated plant varieties. It seeks to support sustainable use of wild plants, and the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage and traditional knowledge of the local people.

A few initiatives have been successful so far, but only at the local level. An 8.8 million dollar project initiated by the Romanian government, but mainly financed by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) through the World Bank, monitors three natural parks in the Carpathians and provides training for those in charge of park management and public education programmes.

“We created pilot management teams for these parks taking into account not only biodiversity conservation in the area, but also the need to support traditional activities and economic development in nearby villages,” Mircea Verghelet, manager of the Piatra Craiului natural park told IPS. The project may soon be extended to all 17 natural parks in Romania.

“Any new initiative, including the Carpathian convention is very important in order to protect the region as a whole and help all its peoples reach prosperity through sustainable means,” Mircea Verghelet added. “I hope that together we can establish such cooperation, because the mountains are our common future.”