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Romania’s forest policy is based on a long tradition in establishing and implementing the principles of sustainable management of forestry resources, based on a sound scientific and technical foundation. This resulted in a rigorous forestry regime, designed to operate efficiently under the conditions of state ownership over all forests. Over the past 30 years, Romania has gone through a period of transition towards a market economy with major institutional changes that took place in the forest sector through the restitution of forests and the privatisation of the administration, logging and forest industry sector. In this context, the regulatory system did not have the expected efficiency, which is reflectedin a clear social tension, involving all stakeholders interested in and affected by the management of forests: private owners, public and private forest administration, loggingand wood processing companies, environmental protection organisations, civil society, etc. The paper presents the process of elaborating a vision for sustainable forest management that would underlie a new public forest policy, in accordance with the international strategic documents and with the current challenges faced by the Romanian forest sector. The dialogue platform used in the elaboration of the vision has been coordinated by auniversity, precisely to ensure a unitary methodological approach to involve relevant experts and stakeholders in the process. The development of the vision used a stepwise participatory process based on the activity of a core group of experts followed by an extension of the group of experts, a public consultation process and a public debate. The result of the process is materialised in a set of eight sustainable forest management principles and four good governance principles. The implementation of the principles requires theidentification, through an efficient and constructive communication between all stakeholders, of specific directions of action that have to be integrated in a new regulatory system that needs to be clear, easily monitored and effective in terms of practical results.

Articolul prezintă o analiză a importanței procesului de certificare forestieră în identificarea și gestionarea serviciilor ecosistemice furnizate de Pădurile cu Valoare Ridicată de Conservare (PVRC). Datele au fost colectate din 13 rapoarte PVRC disponibile publicului larg care acoperă o suprafață totală de pădure de 117.507 ha. Procesul de identificare a PVRC a presupus cartarea a 28.882 ha de pădure care furnizează valori de conservare. Analiza datelor calitative ale rapoartelor s-a axat pe sursele de date folosite în procesul de identificare a PVRC, grupate în cinci categorii: (i) amenajamente silvice; (ii) planuri de management ale ariilor naturale protejate; (iii) alte surse de date disponibile; (iv) consultări publice cu factorii interesați și (v) implicarea personalului silvic. Rezultate au arătat că 80% din zonele identificate ca PVRC provin din informațiile obținute din amenajamentele silvice. Acestea fac referire la serviciile ecosistemice de reglare (protecția apelor, eroziunea solului și calitatea aerului) și la pădurile încadrate în zona de protecție strictă a ariilor naturale protejate. Procesul de identificare PVRC ajută la armonizarea între planurile de management Natura 2000 și amenajamentele silvice, în special, prin cartarea prezenței speciilor rare și amenințate și a habitatelor. O valoare adăugată de procesul PVRC este identificarea serviciilor culturale prin consultări publice cu factorii interesați și implicarea personalului de teren. Serviciile adiționale identificate în procesul de certificare oferă exemple pentru măsuri financiare prin care statul ar putea să recompenseze proprietarii de păduri pentru furnizarea de servicii ecosistemice peste limita cerută legal de amenajamente. În concluzie, analiza subliniază faptul ca amenajarea pădurilor oferă un cadru riguros de identificare a serviciilor ecosistemice forestiere, certificarea forestieră adăugând însă cerințe suplimentare de gestionare și de monitorizare a gradului de furnizarea a serviciilor ecosistemice.

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The importance of green spaces in urban areas is a concept more and more discussed and included in the political agenda. Investments in green infrastructure can change the perception of residents, visitors or future investors about the attractiveness of a city. However, such investments are not easy to be achieved. Besides the human and financial capital necessary for the physical realization of the investments, an essential aspect is the perception of the inhabitants or visitors about the possible alternatives to combine the recreation facilities with the forest-specific natural landscapes. The object of this study is represented by the forest surrounding the Suceava citadel, named Șipote Dendrological Park. The area is a public owned forest and currently has recreational and soil protection functions assigned. In this context, the main purpose of the research is to identify the perception of the local community regarding alternatives of transforming this urban forest into a forest park. The specific objective of the research are: 1) the identification of community’s preferences for alternative strategies involving cutting of different sizes of forest to create recreational facilities; 2) the identification of preferences regarding the recreational facilities desired in an urban forest; 3) the identification of the willingness to pay for the investments nedeed to create a forest park. To assess the value of ecosystem services that are preferred by the local community we have used the contingent valuation method that helps identify consumers’ preferences over a range of alternatives. The method was based on the creation of three credible scenarios to test the alternatives for setting up different recreational facilities in the urban forest. The scenarios are identified based on a list of recreational facilities which imply interventions in cutting the forest as: S1-no forest cuts, S2-a cut of less than 30% of the forest area and S3-a cut of more than 30% of the forest area. In total, 305 questionnaires have been applied to identify citizens’ preferences which assures a confidence interval of 5.6%. The results show that the local community wants to retain the recreational function offered by the presence of the forest and desires in addition investments involving the creation of facilities for outdoor activities. Most of the surveyed participants are in favour of the second scenario and will like to have investments in cycling trails, kids’ playgrounds, fountains and an artificial lake. Nevertheless, the majority of the respondents are not willing to pay an entrance fee to compensate the value of additional facilities.

Forest restitution was a common process for former communist countries in Eastern Europe. The way this process was conducted in Romania, corroborated with inadequate legislation and lack of enforcement mechanisms, constituted the reason for improper forest management in many regions. The study is assessing, in a comparative manner, the effects of forest management in state and private forests over the structure of the growing stock and over the wood production sustainability. The private forests were managed without a forest management plan while the forests owned by state were managed according to forest management plans prescriptions. It was found that, in the case of private forests, the growing stock structure against age classes, analysed in respect to forest composition and density, was seriously affected by the anthropogenic interventions directed by no management rule. The simulations of the growing stock evolution revealed that in the case of private forests, the optimization of current growing stock will be possible after more than 180 years. In the scenario when their management would have been ruled according to the provisions of a forest management plan, the growing stock optimization would have been possible in about 120 years. In addition, the analysis of the economic efficiency of the practiced forest management in the private forests shows that the net yearly income per hectare is less than 13% from the income that could have been achieved if the forests would have been managed according to the original forest management plan.

Adesea consideram ca percepțiile definesc realitatea. Realitatea perceputa este, in fond, o construcție sociala ușor influențabila, o interpretare adeseori ambigua, ce poate ascunde parți de adevar. Una dintre confirmari o constituie unanim recunoscuta pricepere româneasca in ale politicii și fotbalului, care a scos la iveala in perioada recenta un nou subiect: padurile. Și dupa efervescența și naduful cu care oamenii vorbesc despre acest lucru este evident ca percepția lor asupra silviculturii se circumscrie modului in care aceasta este zugravita in mass-media autohtona și mai abitir pe rețelele de socializare. Pe fond, silvicultura reprezinta ceva mai mult decât taieri ilegale, interese și lipsa de credibilitate. Publicul, cultivat metodic de presa, manifesta o preferința deosebita in a consuma clișee ”explozive”, un exemplu in acest sens constituindu-l cele 3 hectare de padure care ”dispar” in fiecare ora din România.