A group of philanthropists buys large tracts of land in Romania to create a “European Yellowstone”

“It has to be an ambitious conservation project,” Hansjörg Wyss, one of the most important environmental philanthropists in the world, put Christoph and Barbara Promberger, promoters of the Conservation Carpathia Foundation, as a condition to finance the purchase of land in Romania, a country which today has 65% of Europe's virgin forests. The purpose is to create “the European Yellowstone,” as the largest donor to this initiative called it—in reference to the oldest and most famous park in the United States—after contemplating from a helicopter the enormous expanse of the Fagaras Mountains, located at the extreme southern Carpathians. So far, they have already bought 27,027 hectares in this still wild place, but the objective is to create a gigantic protected space of 200,000 hectares, as much as the national parks of Sierra Nevada, Picos de Europa and Doñana combined (the three largest reserves in Spain). .

In this area of ​​Transylvania is one of the most important wildlife ecosystems in Europe. From wolves and brown bears – of the latter there are more than 5,000 in the country – to lynxes and beavers roam freely on the forested slopes of the Fagaras mountains, the highest in the southern Carpathians. And several years ago, 80 bison were reintroduced two centuries after their disappearance in these territories, thanks to a program of the Conservation Carpathia Foundation. It all started when the Promberger couple observed in the mid-2000s the bloody illegal felling of trees that was still taking place in the Romanian forests, spurred by the restitution of the forests to former owners from before the communist period. An illicit deforestation that even overwhelmed the parks protected by the State, such as Piatra Craiului - which means The King's Rock -, one of the most popular for its immense variety of flora and fauna.

It is estimated that there are more than 5,000 brown bears in Romania.Calin Serban

“Only if someone buys these forests and they are put into private hands will we be able to save them, at least until the State realizes the importance of preserving them,” the director of a national park joked,” says Barbara Promberger. At that time, the Austrian biologist and her husband Cristoph, a German forester, launched a search for philanthropists and conservationists to raise funds to buy large areas of forest to stop deforestation and, at the same time, promote ecotourism in support to local communities. “This national park has to serve to protect nature, but also to economically develop the areas involved,” says Barbara, who has lived in a tiny village in the province of Brasov for 30 years. As a conservation model, they were inspired by the Tompkins project started in the 1990s to recover the habitats of southern Chile and Argentina, but also by the Bavarian National Park.

So far, they have acquired 27,027 hectares, which they have included in the National Catalog of Virgin and Quasi-virgin Forests to protect them in perpetuity, they have reforested almost 2,000 hectares and have replanted more than four million young trees such as beech, fir and maple. Today, this Eastern European country has more than six million hectares of forest, of which a significant portion is free of human settlements. But illegal logging has already wreaked havoc on vast areas. For this reason, the organization's rangers patrol some 75,000 hectares to stop these illegal acts also in neighboring forests. The project aims to involve the inhabitants of small towns, located at the foot of the Fagaras Mountains, providing jobs and gradually attracting more visitors to the area, as well as developing social educational programs.

Fagaras Mountains, at the southern end of the Carpathians.Dan DINU

However, to create the Fagaras National Park the agreement of the affected local authorities is needed. This is where the Conservation Carpathia Foundation is encountering difficulties. “We are in a post-communist country, so people are wary of losing their property again to the State,” explains Barbara, who emphasizes that the fact that national parks have been established without infrastructure has caused the inhabitants to “become "They have been left with access restrictions and without economic benefits, which has increased general rejection." “We can only buy from private property, but not from city councils or homeowners' associations, so our strategy is to acquire what we can and donate it to the State only if it creates a national park,” says the biologist.

The perception of the villagers of the 28 local communities has changed a lot over the years, but it remains the main challenge to be overcome. At first, residents prejudged the members of the foundation as foreigners who want to obtain significant income at the expense of their land. “They suspected that we had found gold or uranium, they could not imagine that we would invest so much money to conserve only nature,” says Barbara, who hopes that in five or ten years its inhabitants will present a formal request to the Romanian Government to convert their area into a of the largest nature reserves in Europe.

On the other hand, there are still localities that resist. “We believe it is due to the logging

lobbies

. Since they have been threatened, these groups that illegally cut down the forests have begun to create hoaxes about us, such as that we are going to throw snakes from a plane, close access to the forests or cut down the trees," says Victoria Donos, director of Communication and Relations with Local Communities of the Conservation Carpathia Foundation. “They don't understand that there really is someone who wants to do good without any interest in return,” continues the activist, who specifies that it will be a park without restrictions, but with a protected area and another for economic development.

Bison reintroduced to the area.Calin Serban

As another innovative measure, the foundation created its own hunters' association and acquired hunting rights to 80,000 hectares to protect wildlife from some, as poaching was particularly damaging to chamois and deer herds. “There is great opposition from hunters; They perceive us as a danger because we defend a quota established under scientific reason to avoid putting the fauna and the existence of a species at risk,” Donos points out.

In the surroundings of the Leresti commune, which has about 4,500 inhabitants, 28 bison were reintroduced two years ago, which will allow an observation center for this animal to be opened shortly with the purpose of attracting tourists and revitalizing even more the area. “Over time, the inhabitants have understood what Carpathia wants to do,” says Marian Toader, mayor of Leresti, who assures that the area has become a tourist resort of local interest in a few months. The foundation already owns 3,200 of the 15,000 hectares of the commune, details the councilor, who has been able to see how the peripheral towns of the Bavarian National Park have benefited. “In addition, it has helped us keep bears away from neighbors' houses by building electric fences, a problem that previously occurred daily,” concludes Toader.

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