Safeguarding Romania’s forests

There's an old saying in Maramureș: "the forest is like a brother." Some people still say a prayer before cutting down a tree. 

This is how a community in northern Romania has managed to protect some of Europe's last primary and old growth forests, while building everything around them from wood. Their houses, their gates, their churches, the crosses in their graveyards are all crafted from timber. And the forests are preserved too. 

Maria Visovam lives alone in the village of Breb. She's elderly but fiercely independent, carrying logs for her wood-fired stove and weaving textiles on a traditional loom. Her home mirrors what happens when a community learns to take only what it needs. Outside, stretches of ancient forests grow alongside areas where careful harvesting is permitted. 

The secret of this place? Generations of knowledge about which trees to cut and which to leave, when to use horses instead of heavy machinery, and how to let young trees grow in the space created by their elders. Practices so ingrained that they resisted even under  communist nationalization, and the value of these forests remained unchanged. In 2010, after years of work by local foresters and WWF, this approach was recognized and the forest of Maramureș received FSC certification. 

Today, young people are moving to the cities and traditional crafts like Teodor's roof shingles are disappearing. WWF and local communities are betting on a pilot project that aims at recognizing the forest's full value – not just for wood, but for biodiversity, natural and recreational values, and the stories it holds. 

In 2022, these forests became the first in Romania to receive FSC Ecosystem Services certification for recreation and biodiversity. This has opened doors to new funding for natural conservation and local employment. 

Sometimes innovative ideas come from the oldest wisdom. And a certification can be a way of saying: this matters. 

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