Crinu is a “dinosaur“ in the Romanian environmental youth movement. Since 1994 he is an activist, now working for the organisation EcoTerra. His comprehensive experience has led him to some unorthodox suggestions for Romanians to rethink their relation with nature.

Hi, I am Crinu from Romania. I work as an engineer in a big multinational company, however in my freetime I am active for an environmental organisation. Moreover, I love travelling and getting to know other people. When I find the time, I also do some sports like skiing and swimming.

Which Romanian environmental organisation are you active in?

In Eco Terra, which was established as a youth group aiming to promote sustainable development. Our actions have a strong accent on renewable sources of energy and international youth cooperation. Our most successful projects were definitely European wide trainings for environmental activists. “Direct actions” in Romania had rather little success.

What do you think is the reason for that?

People are most of the time reluctant to major changes that might come to affect their life, and therefore they are reluctant to this type of actions.

Can you give some tips to people how they can change their life to be more environmental friendly?

Well, you know, the biggest challenge people are facing today when they are talking about the environment is to pass from the words to the facts. And this is especially hard when you are thinking about your private life. And when you know you have to give up some of your commodities just for the sake of the environment, this is the hardest part of all. So the tip would be: don’t think only about yourself. This is my major message. And if you manage to do it and look around, try to be aware what is around you and act accordingly, then you have the most important thing.

Did you change your life somehow, when you came to the environmental movement?

The truth is that I realised a lot of things about how I should behave in life. I am seeing nature with different eyes now – in my actions, in the way that I am (re)acting in front of other people.

The environment might rather be seen as an enemy for people in Romania: A few weeks ago a huge flood along the Danube watershed destroyed the life base for thousands of people. Isn’t it especially hard to demand a life change towards environmentally behaviour from these people?

The flood we had this and the previous year in Romania was a terrible disaster. And many people suffered, as you might have seen through the media. But what was not shown on TV was that many of the floods took place because of the cuttings in the forests. And so the whole soil, the whole mountains had no stability, so the water ran down and destroyed a lot of houses. That is why I have to resist as an environmentalist that nature is something important. But you have to know how to interact with nature, how to respect nature if you want to be respected by it.

So what needs to be done?

A lot - only from changing peoples mentality. Problems are not related to poverty as many might think, but rather to a lack of environmentally mind set on the one hand and lack of strict application of laws and regulation on the other hand. Huge environmental problems I see in Romania today are deforestation, increasing pollution by car traffic, the lack of waste separation and the lack of culture at the population level for such a practice. Bringing these issues to peoples awareness is the hardest thing and the biggest duty of an environmentalist.

Some last recommendations for people who want to get active in Romania?

To conclude, areas where environmental organisations can have a dramatic impact are huge. However, in terms of youth environmental activity I guess there is a tendency to decrease interest in this type of actions, especially if they are not for profit. Here is the place where I believe young group from outside Romania can play a fundamental role to support young peoples interest in the environment. And for me as a “dinosaur” its time to find creative young people, who are willing to take the lead in environmental activism in Romania.

Hopefully some got already interested in the work of EcoTerra and will seek your contact details (under: More information). Success and thanks for the interview!

Interview: Michael Huettner, eurotope.net team.