Bijdrage plenaire verga­dering over de bescherming van bos- en mili­eu­ac­ti­visten in de EU

Anja Hazekamp (PvdD): Mr. President, our precious nature does not have a voice, and the brave people who stand up to defend it risk their lives by doing so. I want to tell you the story of a Romanian activist, Gabriel Paun from Agent Green. He is in the European Parliament today.

He risked his life trying to prevent trees becoming cheap furniture, trees harvested from the Domogled National Park in the Retezat Mountains. He has been attacked many, many times. In 2015, the ‘lumber mafia’ broke his head, his ribs, and his hand with the intention to kill him. While it was all recorded, it took prosecutors four years to send the attackers to court. Last year, they cut down big trees in aiming to crush him and his car, to block him from filming their illegal logging.

The authorities protect the illegal loggers by manipulating the official figures of the volume of wood that is taken each year from Romania's forest. This is unacceptable. What will the Commission do to protect our forests and to protect the people who defend them?