Carpathia Reserve - Carpathia Reserve

Protecting the ancient Carpathian forests

Recognising the urgent need to prevent the relentless clearing of the ancient Carpathian forests of Romania, Christoph and Barbara Promberger established Fundatia Conservation Carpathia in 2009.

The foundation's goal is to prevent illegal logging and hunting through the purchase and protection of a significant area of Carpathian forests for future generations. This, with the intention to ultimately return the landholdings to the Romanian public domain in the form of a National Park. Peter Bennett was one of the founding members of conservationists and philanthropists due to his long experience with Rainforest Concern and its conservation projects and wildlife reserves.

The FCC's conservation project has now purchased and secured protection for 21,000 hectares of Carpathian forest and its fauna and flora.

Conservation strategy

The project aims to to conserve a significant area of the Carpathian forests for future generations. This is acheived through purchasing land, restoring degraded forest and leasing hunting rights so all the plants and animals are protected.

Restoration plan

Although natural processes are preferred over intensive intervention, restoration of the original ecosystems of the Carpathian forest requires active support. Over 300,000 new saplings (predominantly beech, fir, sycamore and rowan) have been planted to recreate the original composition of trees in the forest.

Expansion of protected area and Natura 2000

In order to protect wildlife, the foundation succeeded in taking all hunting concessions out of circulation bringing the total area free of hunting to almost 100,000 hectares.

The EU network of protected areas, Natura 2000 has declared four sites of Special Protection Areas within the Carpathian mountains.

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Wolves - photo by FCC