USR calls for the establishment of a DNA of forests

The government continues to favor the forest mafia and refuses to calculate the budget impact for the establishment of a forest DNA, according to a press release issued yesterday by USR.

"PSD and PNL act on the model of Prime Minister Ciolacu: many words, zero deeds. Although they say they want to save the forests, in reality the Government ministries refuse to calculate the budgetary impact for the DNA of the Forests, in an attempt to block this project from becoming law. USR deputy Diana Buzoianu submitted the request to obtain the financial statement for the forest DNA project to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice. From the Ministry of Finance, the answer was that they had no data and passed the responsibility to the Ministry of Justice. The Justice Department said they had no powers and redirected the initiators to the Ministry of Finance," the quoted document states.

USR asks PNL-PSD "to stop passing the responsibility of calculating the budget impact from one ministry to another", showing that Romania urgently needs this DNA of the Forests, an autonomous structure within the General Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice , with legal personality, specialized in combating forestry crimes.

"This is what the country led by PSD and PNL looks like: a continuous failure of responsibility, an inability to make a calculation. How hard is it, though, to do these calculations with access to the data? Until the ministries decide among themselves who has the data, because now it seems that none of them know anything, we lose years of our lives: four years on average due to air pollution, and the forests in Romania are disappearing before our eyes. Annually, 20 million cubic meters of wood disappear illegally from our country's forests", said deputy Diana Buzoianu, initiator of the bill.

According to USR, the "Forest DNA Caravan" arrived last month in 10 counties, which are among the most affected by environmental crime and where forests have been massively stolen in recent years. In addition to politicians, representatives of civil society and local authorities participated in the debates organized by the parliamentary political formation. On this occasion, USR collected almost 30,000 signatures in support of the draft law on the establishment of a DNA of forests.