Nature protection and biodiversity - State and impacts (Romania)

With an evaluation of the state and trends as well as an assessment of the impacts in accordance with a country’s own priority issues within a given topic area, countries can address the diversity of their individual situation in terms of geography, as well as social, cultural, economic and environmental legacies.

With intensive economic development in certain regions of the Earth, negative effects on natural ecosystems have become obvious. The EU Member States agreed to take measures to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention onBiological Diversity signed at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. To achieve this objective, the conservation of vulnerable species of plants and animals and their habitats within the most representative of their areas was considered necessary.

In this context, in 2007, the ecological Natura 2000 Network was introduced in Romania. This included 273 Sites of Community Importance (Figure 1) and 108 Special Protection Areas (Figure 2), covering 17.84 % of the country. In this way, Romania is contributing to enlarging the Natura 2000 Network to 26 000 sites representing 20 % of the European Union area. The total area covered by natural protected areas has reached about 20 % of Romania through designation of Natura 2000 sites, which have the status of protected natural areas. The proportion of protected areas by categories is shown in Figure 3.

Natura 2000 sites, designated according to scientific criteria, are distributed across five biogeographic regions in Romania (Alpine, Pannonian, Continental, Black Sea and Steppic). These should contribute significantly to the maintenanceandrestoration ofthe favourable conservation status of species and habitats of Community interest, as well as themaintenanceof the biogeographical regional biodiversity and the coherence of the network itself.

In accordance with the Habitats and Birds Directives, a monitoring system will be established in order to maintain species and natural habitats of Community interest in a favourable conservation status within the Natura 2000 Network and, furthermore, to ascertain the potential threats on species and habitats to prevent harmful actions on them.

Sustainable management of natural resources is not incompatible with human activities. The presence and even the continuation of human activities may be a prerequisite for the maintenance of species and habitats of Community interest. Therefore, maintenance of biodiversity is necessary not only for the present, but for future generations too.