British photographer Nicholas J R White documents the formation of a new European Wilderness Reserve in his recent series “Carpathia”. After logging companies bought up a significant chunk of Romania’s privately-owned forests in the early 2000’s, the resulting deforestation was devastating to the natural environment. In response to the crisis of corporate greed and corruption, Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC) was founded in 2009 with the goal of protecting and restoring the forests of the Southern Carpathians by creating a new European Wilderness Reserve. FCC has since acquired over 21,000 hectacres of forests, created a hunting-free zone of 36,000 hectacres, and planted over 1.5 million saplings.

“Carpathia” is a documentation of this process and the work undertaken. In his own words, White explains: “Scenes of delicate interactions with the land, set against the magnificence of the Carpathian landscape, emphasize the mammoth undertaking by FCC and act as a visual archive of the rebirth of European wilderness.”

See more from “Carpathia” below!