Royal Oaks in Romania

Dr Tibor Hartel, who is leading the AGFORWARD Wood Pasture Stakeholder Group in Romania, met Prince Charles on 2 June 2015.  The meeting to launch a new project to find and record the oldest and largest trees in Romania took place at the wood-pasture of Miklosvár in central Romania. This new project is managed by the Pogány-Havas Association. Also at the event were sponsor Sir Charles Burrell, and biologist Dr Barbara Knowles, who is organizing international events to raise awareness of the importance of protecting ancient trees and wood pastures.
“Romania still has several thousands of ancient trees and thousands of hectares of ancient wood-pastures which are among the best in Europe”, said Tibor Hartel. “They are an important part of our cultural heritage, create beautiful landscapes and provide homes to rare and protected wildlife, plants and fungi. Also, wood-pasture systems represent a sustainable integration of food-production with the ecological, aesthetic and cultural values. This project celebrates these remarkable trees and places, and we hope that it will reconnect communities with their trees and valuable treescapes”.
“Often with medieval origins, wooded pastures are rich in biodiversity and the ancient trees are irreplaceable. We are asking local people to care for their trees, and we will go to Brussels and Bucharest to ask politicians to improve the agriculture and environment policies to protect them,” said Barbara Knowles. The Remarkable Trees of Romania website is now open for everybody in Romania to record special trees and can be accessed at:
http://arboriremarcabili.ro/en/