Climate Detectives Projects 2018-2019

Project title: Climate detectives-deforestation

Team: Detectives Waldorf

2018-2019   Waldorf school, Rm Valcea, Romania   Rm Valcea   Romania   8 Student’s age: 12-13

Only 26.76% of Romania’s surface is covered with forests. The European average is 29.3%. In addition, according to data from the Ministry of the Environment, in 2006, the area of forests decreased by about 127 thousand hectares. The main causes of this situation are poor management, illegal tree felling, illegal construction in wooded areas and frequent fires. Half of the wood cut in Romania in the last decade comes from illegal deforestation, are clear conclusions of a report made by the American Environmental Investigation Agency, after thorough research in the field. A map compiled by Greenpeace shows that over the period 2000-2011, 280,000 hectares of forests have been cut off. At a rate of 3 hectares per hour !! Through its geographical location, Valcea County, where we live, benefits from almost all the major relief forms: mountains, sub-Carpathian hills, plateaus and meadows, arranged in steps from north to south, completed by the gorges of Olt and Lotru , guarded by the Cozia, Căpăţânii, Făgăraş, Lotru and Parâng Mountains. Two thirds of the county’s surface is occupied by the Getic Plateau and Getic Subcarpathians, with altitudes between 400-800 m. Massive floods are a sensitive topic in Romania. Scandals on this issue occur frequently, and citizens urge every time to take urgent action to stop deforestation that has ravaged national and natural parks Illegal forest cuts damaged the state by more than 50 million euros in one year, shows a Greenpeace study for the years 2013-2014

After selecting the problem, the students went to investigate. That’s how they found out that thousands of hectares of forest in northern county were abusively taken over, sold and deforested right under the nose of local authorities, damages rising to over five and a half billion lei According to some specifications of the Department for Waters, Forests and Fisheries, Valcea County is the paradise of massive deforestation of forests and illegal logging The public authority responsible for forestry in the county of Valcea is the Regional Inspectorate of Forestry and Hunting Rm. Valcea. According to him, the volume of illegally cut trees in 2012 identified in the inspections of the Regional Inspectorate of Forestry and Hunting Rm. Valcea was 16502 cubic meters, of which it was broken down in each county as follows: Valcea – 2699 mc, Gorj – 5812 mc, Dolj -4994 mc, Mehedinti – 892 mc and Olt – 2105 mc. As detectives, they searched for clues and drew conclusions about pollution from illegal tree cuts. They searched for information on the net, asked their parents to help them, and even received a visit to a Romsilva employee, Valcea Silvic Directorate, who explained that sometimes when we see brown areas instead of green, it does not necessarily mean there’s nothing growing there. Some of them are already full of seedlings and come back. He also taught them how to check whether a car is carrying legal timber or not: using the phone application “Forest Inspector”, which rings directly to the police if the shipment is illegal. Among the “evidences” discovered by small detectives are some older pictures that show how the county and the city looked decades ago, comparing them with today’s photos on Google Maps.

Attracting our action, a reporter from the national newspaper “Adevarul” made an article in which he points out the climate issue we are studying, the conclusions we have reached and what solutions we propose to solve the problem. https://adevarul.ro/locale/ramnicu-valcea/foto-detectivii-climei-proiectul-provoaca-elevii-protejeze-pamantul-informarea-constientizarea-pas-lupta-defrisarile-ilegale-1_5cdab3ac445219c57e9d2731/index.html The first steps are to inform and raise awareness of the problem of deforestation. Under the slogan “Plant! Take care! On November 14 (Saturday) 2018, together with our parents, we have participated in a national afforestation movement on non-productive public lands – the area around the city where we live, Feteni. In recent years the area has been affected by landslides , The Râmnicu Vâlcea City Hall, the institutional partner of “Planting good deeds in Romania” – the national voluntary afforestation initiative – decided to change the destination of the land so that it enters the forestry circuit. To raise awareness in our community, we made posters and drawings of messages and drawings that we exhibited in school and on the fence of the school so that our colleagues, parents and all those who come to school can also find out I pass by it. In addition, we are now working on a site where we will post all the clues – information, photos, statements, videos, etc. which we will promote on the socializing sites of the school, to the parents. We also want to make some flyers to share through the city center and malls to make as many people as possible informed. And we will take care not to waste the paper, to replicate it and to participate in the future of the greening and afforestation actions that will be organized. I told family, friends, schoolmates, I also published the project blog: Https://waldorfdetectives.wixsite.com/website-2

https://waldorfdetectives.wixsite.com/website-2