HOW EFFICIENT IS THE PROTECTION OF BIODIVERSITY THROUGH NATURAL PROTECTED AREAS IN ROMANIA?

Natural protected areas are an important component of sustainability, aimed at preserving a part of the current biodiversity for the future generations. Romania has declared numerous protected areas during the process of joining the European Union, particularly NATURA 2000 sites, but the question is: How effective is the management of sites declared under the pressure of time? In order to answer the question, this study uses data from the competent authorities on the presence of a custodian (with or without a management contract) and of a management plan for each natural protected area. After processing the data to answer each question in a binary manner, the results were mapped and synthesized. Our findings indicate that roughly 50% of the Romanian natural protected areas of benefit upon an effective protection, suggesting that little progress was achieved in the decade succeeding their declaration. Therefore, much hope is placed in the newly created Agency for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]