10. Legal and Institutional Aspects of the Conservation and Management of FGR in Romania

Romania has started to identify and characterize its forest genetic resources shortly after the adoption of Strasbourg S2 and Helsinki H2 Resolutions of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe. At the same time, the country has experienced major changes (transition from a centralized to a market economy, property restitution process, and privatization) which have strongly affected the forest sector. In 2011, the National Catalogue of Forest Genetic Resources was finalized by the National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry “Marin Drăcea” (former ICAS). One year later, the catalogue and the corresponding set of management measures were endorsed by the central authority for forestry under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. According to the ministerial order, forest owners and managers have to comply with the requirements in order to manage genetic conservation units included in the catalogue. The management measures allow low-intensity silvicultural interventions and promote natural regeneration. There is a need to evaluate the existing conservation units and to assess the quality of the management measures taken so far.