A voice for the environment
Ciprian Dumitru Muscă A voice for the environment — life sciences, economics and public policy, written from the field
Projects

ForestMania

Communicating about forests and wood to the wider public.

Hills covered in spruce forest, seen from above, with valleys fading toward the horizon in the morning light
A renewable resource, a vital industry and a community of people who work in the field every day.

Forests and Wood, as They Really Are

ForestMania.ro is the media platform of the Asociația Forestierilor din România (the Romanian Foresters’ Association, ASFOR) — the place where forests and wood are presented as they really are: a renewable resource, a vital industry and a community of people who work in the field every day.

Why we created ForestMania

We created ForestMania because, for too many years, the forest has been more of an online spectacle than a reality. Disinformation, unfounded emotion and oversimplification have often buried the truth. ForestMania.ro sets out to correct this imbalance: to offer news, reports, interviews and opinion from Romania and around the world, written with professionalism, hard data and respect for those who work in forestry, timber harvesting and wood processing.

Ciprian Dumitru Muscă in an orange safety helmet and high-visibility vest, in the forest
From the field, not from the online spectacle.

Wood is not “just a raw material”

Wood is not “just a raw material”. It becomes OSB board, sawn timber, an iconostasis, a child’s crib or a formwork plank. The industry in Romania employs more than 150,000 people. Each of them has a story. ForestMania is where these stories are told, and where modern technology, digitalization, the bioeconomy and the challenges facing the sector are explained clearly, without passion and without hatred.

Tall stacks of sawn timber in the yard of a wood-processing plant, with a gantry crane in the backgroundSamples of laminated timber panels and elements displayed on a wooden shelf
Sawn timber in a mill yard and samples of wood products at the ASFOR stand at Romexpo.
Modern wood-and-glass building with a green roof at the edge of the forest; at the entrance, a sign reading “New European Bauhaus in Romania”
Wood in today’s architecture: a building presented as a New European Bauhaus project in Romania.

About and for those who love forests and wood

The platform is a registered trademark of ASFOR and remains true to the values we have consistently upheld: sustainable management, genuine dialogue, the dignity of the profession and the recognition of wood as a strategic resource. It is about and for those who love forests and wood — not only professionals, but anyone who wants to understand why no one can imagine life without the forest. Or without wood.

Foresters in protective gear, with chainsaws and diplomas, under the banner “Romanian Foresters’ Association – since 1994”
Foresters honored at the celebration of ASFOR’s 30th anniversary.

A complement to the work in the field

ForestMania.ro does not replace the work in the field. It complements it. It builds trust where trust was missing, makes visible the work of those who “cut without breaking the thread, measure without lying, and harvest without emptying”, and contributes to a mature public conversation about the future of Romania’s forests.

Red Romanian IRUM forestry tractor on display at an outdoor fair, with spruce forest in the backgroundHydraulic forestry crane at work in a broadleaf forest in autumn
Forestry technology, from the trade-fair stand to work in the forest.

Patience and truth

The forest is in no hurry. Neither is accurate information. But both need patience, professionalism and people willing to tell the truth.

Mixed forest in autumn, with yellow broadleaves and green spruces on the slopes

Dr. ing. ec. Ciprian Dumitru Muscă
President of ASFOR

Read the platform at forestmania.ro.

From the journal: ForestMania