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Here's what you help protect by choosing Infomaniak

Thursday April 16th, 2026
|In RSE, All the news
|By Thomas Jacobsen

Infomaniak dedicates a share of its annual growth to funding non-profit organisations working for social justice, biodiversity preservation, the regulation of environmentally harmful industries, and ambitious environmental policies. Beneficiaries include Amnesty International, Reclaim Finance, Kokopelli, Public Eye, the Wikimedia Foundation. We have also been supporting Agent Green since 2021, the NGO we want to focus on today.

What does this funding actually achieve? We met Gabriel Paun, founder of Agent Green, at our Geneva offices in December 2024 — just after he had received the Champions of the Earth Award, the United Nations’ highest environmental honour. His NGO has been fighting since 2009 to save Europe’s last primary forests.

Agent Green: a football team that brings governments to their knees

A Romanian specialist in natural sciences, Gabriel Paun has been defending the environment since 2001. Agent Green is a small organisation — no larger than a football team — but every euro is put to work: dialogue, investigation, advocacy, protest when necessary, and lawsuits against companies and governments.

Agent Green has filed hundreds of complaints and taken cases all the way to European institutions. The NGO accepts no public funding, relying solely on private donations and support from partners like Infomaniak. And it spares no one: royal families, the church, private landowners, or the state — Agent Green confronts them all in the same way.

All the threats I have faced mean nothing to me. I must carry on because I cannot unlearn what I have learnt. And I have learnt that the planet is suffering and needs healing. If I stopped, I would be morally dead. And for me, moral death is the most painful of all. — Gabriel Paun, Champions of the Earth 2024

At Infomaniak, when we invest in environmental protection, it is to fund organisations like this one: small, independent, and effective.

25 years to save a forest. For ever.

Romania is home to two thirds of Europe’s remaining primary forests, primarily along the Carpathians. These forests provide essential ecological services to millions of people and harbour some of the largest populations of large carnivores on the continent. This is the heritage Agent Green protects.

During our conversation, Gabriel Paun shared two recent victories.

1. An entire national park, protected for ever

It took 25 years of investigations, scientific publications, legal proceedings, and resistance to secure strict, permanent protection — now enshrined in Romania’s official state gazette. We resisted, insisted, and persisted. — Gabriel Paun

Retezat National Park is Romania’s oldest national park, established in 1935. Yet despite its protected status, the vast majority of its forests were open to logging. The timber was shipped to around a hundred countries — for construction or heating pellets exported to Western Europe. That wood may be in your home without you knowing it.

2. Ancient forests wrested from large-scale logging

Five years of fighting. We took them to court. We won. — Gabriel Paun

These forests belonged to the Romanian royal family. The new generation had lost its connection to the land and opened the forests to large-scale felling. Damage was done — but it will go no further. Today, the forests hold giant trees that take a whole room full of people to embrace. They are protected for ever.

Why protect a primary forest?

The figures Gabriel Paun shared put the stakes into perspective:

  • A single hectare of primary forest produces the oxygen that 170 people breathe for an entire year.
  • Each hectare stores 200 tonnes of carbon.

And it goes beyond climate:

In my lifetime, the Earth has lost 80% of its biodiversity biomass. Only 20% remains. Ants, bees, pollinators that allow our crops to grow — we depend on all of this to survive. — Gabriel Paun

He stresses an important distinction: there is a difference between a forest and a tree plantation. Monoculture plantations — with their felling cycles, heavy machinery, pesticides, and fertilisers — function like a maize or soya field. Plant, cut, plant, cut. These are no longer forests. They are fields of trees.

From sustainability to planetary health

Gabriel Paun takes a critical view of the concept of sustainability. For him, it is a concept that has failed because it cannot be measured. He argues instead for the term planetary health:

Before and after every human activity, we should ask: what is the impact on the number of species, on biomass, on the state of living things? If the balance is neutral or positive, you are contributing to the planet’s health. If not, you are accelerating its decline. — Gabriel Paun

This calls for a shift in perspective. Humans are extraordinary creatures, he says — but we are part of a chain.

We need to step back, be a little more humble before the Earth, and consider all species as equally important. That is the only way we will save our own. — Gabriel Paun

Fast furniture and the educated choice

Every purchase is a choice. Gabriel Paun cites IKEA as an example of what he calls “fast furniture”: short-lived products designed to be replaced quickly, like fast fashion.

Fast furniture is like fast fashion. The shorter a piece of furniture lasts, the more wood it takes, the more trees are cut. — Gabriel Paun

His proposal is radical: if an oak lives 500 years in the wild, the dining table made from it should last at least as long.

A piece of furniture is not a pair of socks. It should be beautiful and pass through generations. Châteaux are proof of that. — Gabriel Paun

His practical alternative: go to a local carpenter. An age-old trade that is disappearing. A craftsman who has no wish to harm his forest, who fells a single tree every few years and turns it into quality furniture. Perhaps a little more expensive — but built to last for ever.

This is what Gabriel Paun calls an educated choice:

With every purchasing decision, ask yourself two questions: do I really need this? And if so, can I keep it for as long as possible? — Gabriel Paun

These forests exist — and you can visit them

It is possible to visit the forests Agent Green has saved. Gabriel Paun’s team accompanies visitors or points them in the right direction. By train, ideally.

Entering a primary forest is like crossing a bridge through time. You no longer know whether you are in 2024 AD or BC. Unless a plane passes overhead, nothing will tell you. — Gabriel Paun

You may encounter families of brown bears, wolves, lynx, and golden eagles. No need to travel to Yellowstone: the European brown bear is the same species as the grizzly. It is here, at the heart of Europe, one or two days by train from Switzerland.

To arrange a visit, support the campaign against fast furniture, or make a donation, visit agentgreen.ro. Gabriel Paun is also the subject of Wild East, a short documentary about the protection of Romania’s old-growth forests, set for release this summer. You can support the project here.

If you are an Infomaniak customer, you are already contributing to these efforts. To learn about all our commitments, read our impact report.

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