ROMANIA'S NATIONAL AND NATURAL PARKS AND THEIR ECOLOGICAL AND ECOTURISTIC IMPORTANCE

Ecotourism is essential to protect and preserve the natural and cultural heritage, to develop local communities socially and economically and to increase the environmental education. To conserve the biological diversity, Romania has established many protected natural areas (over 7% of the country's area or about 18% if Natura 2000 sites considered). Romania has 32 protected natural areas of national interest: the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, 13 national parks and 18 natural parks. Besides these major protected areas, there are 941 scientific reserves, nature monuments and nature reserves nationwide, exceeding 300,000 hectares. Although Romania has a significant ecotourism heritage with great potential for valuation and an adequate legislative framework, ecotourism is still a fairly narrow segment of tourism market, facing many problems, such as: poor local cooperation, modest national and international promotion, limited supply, poor diversification, poor development of ecotourism infrastructure in protected areas, labor migration, low level of training of those employed in the field. Using a proper management and infrastructure, these protected areas could receive more visitors, which would increase tourism revenue and improve the current precarious situation of financing protected areas.