The Logging Business


More than half of the "renewable" energy in the European Union is produced by burning wood. It is called “forest biomass”. According to environmentalists the approximately 17 billion euros in subsidies it receives every year put European forests at risk. The documentary investigates the impact of forest biomass incentives in Italy and Romania.
Tiberiu Bosutar is a Romanian activist targeted by the “wood mafia” for his fight against illegal logging which affects his country. He meets his sources in a forest, which was illegally logged despite being certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. A Romanian coal plant is being transformed in a forestry biomass facility due to Eu incentives. European Commission's experts say that forest biomass burning is “green” only if it is made of woody residues. But in Tuscany a natural reserve with centenary trees was daestroyed by a company which supplies biomass facilities in Calabria. In this southern Italian region affected by the 'Ndrangeta criminal organization, the health of citizens who live near biomass facilities is threatened by the air pollution.

Two months after the broadcast of the documentary on Rainews, the owners of a Calabrian biomass facility were arrested by the Italian magistrature for links with the 'Ndrangeta. Four others are being investigated for State fraud on public incentives.

  • Ludovica Jona
    Director
  • Ludovica Jona
    Writer
  • Ludovica Jona
    Producer
  • Filippo Bellantoni
    Editor
  • Catalin Cătălin Prisacariu
    Researcher in Romania
  • Gaudenzio Contestabile
    Soundtrack in the Suceava forest
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    L'affare dei tagli boschivi
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 58 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 5, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    20 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Belgium, Italy, Romania
  • Language:
    English, Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ludovica Jona

Ludovica Jona is an investigative journalist, a film-maker and video-producer. Contributor at La7 national tv and at Il Fatto Quotidiano online newspaper. Her works appeared on Rainews, Rai3, The Intercept and Mediapart among other media organizations. She received national and international media awards.
With her reportage “The Truth Machine” on the lie detector funded by the European Commission to contrast illegal migration (Report Rai3, 2019), she was the only journalist who managed to test the artificial intelligence system and collect evidences that it doesn’t work. Her short reportage “What I miss about you” (Tagadà La7, 2020) on the loneliness in psychiatric facilities during and after the Covid pandemic, won the “Fratelli tutti” media award for tv programs, released by Corecom Lazio. She also contributed to video-investigations on the business of pharmaceutical companies during the Covid pandemic (Report Rai, 2021) and on how European development funds are spent for migration control (La Stampa, 2017).
She was co-author of the documentary “Mohammed and the Fisherman” (2012) broadcast in Italy (RaiStoria), Finland (Yle), Switzerland (SF-DRS) and Denmark (DR), which won various film awards.
Her video-investigation “Terminal Rifugiati” (Rainews, 2011) on the cooperatives' business on the management of refugees in Rome, anticipated the well-know magistrature investigation “Mafia Capitale”.
Member of the Italian Journalists Association since 2008, she speaks fluently English and Spanish. Degree in Political science with specialization in Multimedia communication and International relations.

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