The National Forestry Guard launched a new digital platform on Monday, October 12, through which citizens can submit and track complaints regarding illegal tree cutting and other irregularities in forests, as well as consult a map showing the locations of inspections carried out by inspectors, the damage identified, and the penalties imposed.
The new application, presented by interim environment minister Diana Buzoianu and National Forestry Guard general inspector Florin George Gârbacea at a press conference, aims both to increase the transparency of inspections and to change the way complaints regarding violations of forestry legislation are registered, resolved, and evaluated.
The application includes information on the historical boundaries of forest land, dating back to 1990, data from forestry management plans, and a system for evaluating the performance of the nine regional forestry guards. It was developed within the institution, without contracting external programming services.
The minister explained that, until now, citizens submitting petitions regarding possible illegal tree cutting had no tool available to track what happened to their complaints. Inspections could take months, and petitioners had to wait for the institution’s response without being able to access information about the progress of the inspection or its results.
Through the new platform, each complaint submitted online will automatically receive a registration number, which will be sent to the petitioner by email. They will subsequently be able to check the status of the petition, the time elapsed since registration, whether an inspection has been carried out, and the conclusions of the checks. The system includes a timeline of the complaint resolution process, from registration to the communication of the response.
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Moreover, the electronic form allows for documents that can help inspectors identify the location and nature of the reported irregularities to be attached. Citizens are encouraged to submit photographs with GPS location data, geographical coordinates, cadastral documents, and other relevant materials. Gârbacea explained that this information can be particularly important when unmarked tree stumps, suspicious tree cutting, or interventions in areas where the boundaries of forest land are unclear are reported.
The application also tracks compliance with deadlines for resolving petitions. The general inspector stated that after a complaint is registered, the system automatically calculates the 30-day response deadline. In the internal module, petitions that are still within the deadline are marked in green, while those that have exceeded it are highlighted in red. Depending on the complexity of the inspections, the deadline may also be extended in accordance with the law.
The platform includes an interactive map displaying Forestry Guard inspections and their geographical locations. Users can select an inspection to view a summary of the checks and a report containing their results, including whether violations of the law were identified and whether fines were imposed.
Public information within the form is anonymized, meaning that the names of people who filed complaints will not be displayed, and inspection reports will not include identifying information about the companies inspected. According to the general inspector, this measure is important because some citizens hesitate to report irregularities for fear that their identities might become known.
The platform is not limited to inspections initiated following complaints. According to the Forestry Guard’s leadership, all inspections carried out by inspectors will eventually be entered into the system, regardless of whether they were prompted by citizens’ petitions or initiated by the institution itself.
At the time of the launch, however, not all inspections had been uploaded to the application. During the demonstration, Gârbacea explained that more inspections had been carried out than were visible on the map, and that some features, including those for mobile phone use, were still under development.
The environment minister stated that people who have filed complaints can request to participate in inspections carried out by forestry inspectors. The measure was not introduced through the new platform but through a decision by the general inspector that had already been in effect for several weeks.
Buzoianu explained that there had been complaints that inspectors arriving at a site did not check the exact locations indicated in the reports. According to her, the presence of petitioners can help identify the exact locations where possible illegal activities have been observed and prevent situations in which inspections are carried out in an area other than the one reported.
The environment minister also presented data on the Forestry Guard’s activity during the first six months of 2026, compared with the same period in 2025. In this period, the number of inspections increased by approximately 9–10%, while the value of the damage identified reached RON 3.85 million, compared with RON 1.34 million in the first half of last year. Buzoianu stated that these results were achieved with the same number of inspectors and the same inspection tools, noting that the difference was related to the prioritization of checks and changes in the leadership of some regional units.
The volume of illegally cut timber identified by inspectors also increased, from approximately 2,700–2,800 cubic meters in the first six months of 2025 to around 6,000 cubic meters in the same period of 2026.
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