Romania, which has some of the last untouched old-growth forests in Europe, is planning to dedicate over 250,000 acres of its wildest land to a new national reserve that some have described as a "Yellowstone for Europe."
The area, at the southern edge of the Carpathian mountains in Transylvania, is inhabited by brown bears, wolves and lynx, and in recent years by bison, reintroduced after a 200-year absence. The project is sponsored by the Foundation Conservation Carpathia, and aims for a park that will not only protect forests and wildlife, but also support local communities with ecotourism and nature-positive businesses.
The project has already bought a large part of the land, much of it untouched old forests, but also including areas that have been logged in the past, and has bought hunting rights to another large tract to keep the area intact until it can be purchased.
Romania has more than 6m hectares of forest, of which a significant portion is still “virgin”, unfragmented areas with no human settlement, home to some of the few remaining sectors of old-growth forest in Europe. But illegal logging has cleared vast swathes of forest, and the destruction continues; FCC hopes to end that trend.
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