14 less than in 2005. Also, according to an article published on a news portal in Romania, through the evaluation instrument for forest resources (National Forest Inventory), established following the requests of the European Union, the situation of Romania's forests was monitored for ten years, according to scientific methods certified worldwide. The results of the report revealed that every year, 20 million cubic meters of wood disappear from forests without legal forms. The People's Advocate initiated the specific investigation procedure on this case, and the situation is currently being analyzed in collaboration with the competent public authorities, in order to identify solutions. The situation created by the overpopulation of the brown bear species in certain areas of Romania has been the subject of certain actions made by the People's Advocate Institution, starting with September 2017. Based on several petitions, the People's Advocate Institution initiated the specific intervention measures, addressing the Ministry of Environment repeatedly to resolve the situation. We welcome the issuance by the Ministry of Environment of Order no. 724/2019 for approving the level of intervention in the case of bear and wolf species, in the interest of the health and safety of the population and in order to prevent significant damage. Also, after October 24, 2019, the People's Advocate Institution was notified by several petitioners regarding the illegality of the Decision no. 539 of October 24, 2019, adopted by the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest. This administrative act establishes the so-called oxygen tax and provides for concrete measures to improve the air quality in Bucharest, in the sense of delimiting a perimeter in the center of Bucharest (ZACA), within which the access of heavily polluting and polluting vehicles will be conditioned by the payment of a fee, called Oxygen Vignette. In this regard, we addressed the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest, in order to clarify certain situations related to the way of implementing the measures, with reference to the situation of the people living in the delimited perimeter of the center of Bucharest and whose right of use of their vehicles could be affected by prohibiting the access to the Air Quality Action Area (ZACA), the specific destination of the amounts from the collection of the oxygen vignette or the considerations for which certain vehicles were included in the category of those exempted from the provisions of Art. 2 of the Decision no. 539 of October 24, 2019. PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE ANNUAL REPORT 2019

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