EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PAUL LISTER, “THE TREE HUGGER”

The most beautiful movie about Romania was made because of him. Exclusively for Q Magazine, Paul Lister, the man behind “Wild Carpathia” talks about the project that he is preparing now for our country.

Read here the romanian version.

HE MEANS TO REMIND ROMANIANS OF THEIR WONDERFUL COUNTRY

It’s a warm November morning in the famous London district Notting Hill. I pass by a strangely quiet Portobello Road on my way to having a coffee with a very special person. He is the man behind the worldwide-known documentaries “Wild Carpathia”, the best 4-part TV series ever made about Romania, broadcast in more than 100 countries and translated into 20 languages.

A philanthropist, famous for his ongoing struggle to protect forests, and also an initiator of the Foundation Conservation Carpathia, whose aim is to create a world-class wilderness reserve in the Southern Romanian Carpathians, which should be similar to the Yellowstone Park, a man who is well-known for his love for Romania: Paul Lister.

Most journalists like to first mention his fortune. I will also do that in what follows, but not in order to merely talk about his millions. And it is not because he resents that, but because I believe that he possesses a far more important inheritance than what his father left him in material terms.

“The important legacy is not what you make, it’s what you give away” is what Noel Lister told his son.  It’s about this very important life lesson turned into lifestyle, through which he is starting to shift consciences all over the world that I am going to speak about today with this inspiring man who could describe himself in so many complex ways and yet decides to introduce himself so simply. “I am a tree hugger, that’s all I am.”

Sursa foto: Herald Scotland

Apparently “it was once claimed that six out of 10 British children were conceived in MFI bedroom suites, and one in three Sunday lunches prepared in its fitted kitchens” says The Telegraph about MFI, the furniture company owned by his father, a man who revolutionized the UK furniture market. Now his son is trying to leave a legacy as significant as the one his father left him by giving something back.  I am anxious to see what exactly he is doing in that respect.

ROMANIA, “THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE EUROPEAN DIVERSITY”, “THE LUNGS OF EUROPE”

We meet in front of his green-painted house – I should have imagined that such a forest-lover would choose no other colour for his home- and I am surprised that he does not greet me wearing his wolf mask. As his intentions of returning wolves to a 20,000 acre fenced wildlife Reserve in Scotland are highly controversial, he likes to poke fun at the reactions he has caused with this initiative by wearing a wolf mask now and then.

As the conversation unfolds and I find out that it was in 1984 that he first visited Romania in order to buy furniture and that he instantly fell in love with the country that has thousands of square kilometers of ancient and virgin forests, which he calls “the heart and soul of the European bio-diversity” or “the lungs of Europe”.

I instantly like him when I hear him saying that he is fed up with people trying to give Romania a bad name. “Romania is not a country of gypsies, they are an amazing people with a great culture and history, who have suffered a lot: wars, tribes coming over them, and who have had a rough time during the 45 years of communism”.

Paul strongly believes that “Romania is the richest country in Europe, resource-wise “, “oil, gas, minerals, gold, forest, sunlight…I do not see any country that can stand near it”.  It is his wish that part of his legacy would be to have helped preserve the last forest of Europe, our forest in Romania.

Alexandra Svet și Pau lLister

Q Magazine . What would you recommend to someone travelling to Romania for one week?

Paul Lister. I would say 4 or 5 days in Transylvania and 3 or 4 days in the Delta. So, cover the mountains, forests, the Saxon villages and then spend at least 3 nights and explore the Delta. And go in spring time, go in May.

Q Magazine. Where exactly in Transylvania?

Paul Lister. Well, you could go to places like Cincsor, Viscri, you can go to Zabola, Covasna, you can go to Balaban, in Simon, Bran, go to Sighisoara, Brasov is obviously a lovely city, also Sibiu and you can get direct flights… So, my recommendation is to fly into a Transylvanian city like Targu Mures or Sibiu and then   drive to Bucharest and onto the Delta. That’s how I would spend it, but you barely scratch the surface when you go for one week, I usually go for longer. Bucharest? Yeah, if you have an extra night or two go to Bucharest, I like Bucharest. But if the time is limited then you would probably skip it….

Q Magazine. Romanian personalities that you admire?

Paul Lister. Horia (Tecau ) is a good friend of mine. And obviously Simona Halep who is doing a great job…There are many musicians and actors who are very talented. And the Romanian people in general are well educated, you know…University- wise and things… And the languages are something else, most of them speak at least one foreign language…Us, British people…probably because we are an island and so many people around the world speak English, we are kind of lazy…

“When you haven’t seen nature like that in the UK and you go to Romania, you come back.” is what Paul believes.

He is trying to bring more tourists to Romania, trying to get more people to come and get close to nature instead of choosing some chain hotels in Bucharest. Virtually everyone he has taken to Romania has gone back again. “I do not know anyone that went there and said ‘That was my last trip, forget it’. They always go back.” says Paul.

“There are lots of people who do not know about Romania. That is the problem, obviously, getting Romania on the map.  People talk about the lack of infrastructure…I don’t think that that is a major problem right now because I just come back from Uganda and there is little infra-structure there- yet they have quite a lot of tourism …But again their tourism numbers are low in comparison to Kenya, very low, like probably 15% of Kenya…so, Romania suffers the same problem. People have a vision of Dracula and orphanages and communism and gypsies…and they are very wrong… “, says Paul to Q Magazine.

Q Magazine. I know that you have planted around 850 000 trees in Alladale, Scotland, up to now. What solutions can you see for the problem of the illegal and excessive tree-felling in Romania?

Paul Lister. If the Romanian people could see what we need to do in Scotland now, how hard it is, they would appreciate more what they have. Well, about the tree-felling  , it is a case of law enforcement…I think the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in Washington has done a pretty good job of monitoring and things are changing now.

I think that the level of timber, of Romanian timber that is going has reduced by half. But the problem is if a place has got corruption, it’s from top to bottom, that’s the problem. How do you sort that out? I think it is up to the Romanian people to show solidarity on their natural heritage, you know? And they’ve done it before, they’ve gone on the streets…

It is a widespread problem, it has been growing mainly because of the land restitution process.  It created the opportunity and now I think it is going to slow down because, I think, there are all sorts of devices and applications on people’s phones for monitoring lorries and things like these…and even I noticed, just driving around I see less timber trucks on the roads these days. Hopefully this is a good sign.

WE SHOULD BE UNITED

Q Magazine. What do you think are the values and the objectives that the Romanian people should stick to?

Paul Lister. I think they need to have an appreciation of what they have and of what makes them different from the rest of Europe and hopefully the films that we are making and the new film that is under production will go a long way to illustrate to Romania just how special their country is.

And once they have got a consciousness around that they can really unite. But as long as they think that what they have is normal there will be a problem. That is why we have the mobile “Wild Kingdom” environmental education program based in Brasov, which reaches 25,000 school children each year.

Sursa foto: The Independent

Q Magazine . What would you do to make things better if you were the president of Romania?

Paul Lister. I suppose I’d want to turn Romania into the Costa Rica of Europe. So I’d want to put aside 10-15% of Romania’s landmass into conservation and National Parks and create a whole new rural economy based on nature and wildlife, just like Costa Rica has done.

Q Magazine . And you would cut the army? Costa Rica is the only country in the world that has no army…

Paul Lister. I don’t know…I don’t understand armies and things like this! I don’t know of another species that spends 20%+ of global GDP on attacking and defending itself from one another. It’s rather strange.

I know that I would pick up the phone and speak to Jose Figueres, who lives in Geneva and is the former president of Costa Rica and I would ask him what do we do to turn around our nature tourism in the country and create a whole new industry- become known as the only place in Europe that has got vast surfaces of the original forests, Delta, etc…

Q Magazine . What do you wish Romania on her birthday?

Paul Lister. A bloody good party…which I think they are very good at doing. Romanians like to have a party. Have a party and celebrate…

Q Magazine . What do you think about Brexit? How important are the Romanians for the UK?

Paul Lister. I just think it’s a real shame that Europe wants to fragment like that…you know, Scotland wants to get away from Britain, Britain wants to get away from Europe, Catalans want to get away from Spain…I think this is the opposite way of where we should be going…we should be joining up, not separating. Globally we seem to be fragmenting and we should be joining. I am not in favour of separating from Europe, I’d rather work together with Europe and find a common policy. We should be united. It would be a shame to lose all the Romanians in London.

I heard the Oscar-nominated producer José María Morales saying that Paul is one of the few people who will change the world and I tend to agree with him. I am leaving Paul Lister today smiling, inspired and energized, and most of all, thinking of how much I love wolves.

And not only because you will never see one performing in circuses, although the tiger and the lion might be stronger. I love them especially because the wolf was the totemic animal of the Dacians.

The young Dacians used to ritually wear a wolf skin during their initiation as warriors, as they wanted to attain its wisdom and courage, as well as its skill and fire when fighting. It is not by accident that the Dacian flag had a wolf’s head on it.

I am a Romanian temporarily living in a Europe full of concrete and barren hills, missing the vast forests of my homeland so much, and praying that more people will come to understand how blessed we are to own such a treasure.

I really hope that more of us will start wearing wolf masks, just like Paul does, in such a wonderful attempt to defend nature, which means Life to all of us.