During 17-19 August, representatives of some of the most important environmental NGOs in Romania were guests of the Carpathia project.

More than 20 nature conservation experts, decision-makers in the organizations they represent, had the opportunity to get to know part of our team and the ProPark Foundation for Protected Areas and become familiar with the work we started more than 10 years ago in the south-east of the Făgăraș Mountains.

The first day was allocated to our foundation and we had the opportunity to present our most important achievements based on our 5 pillars of activity: forest conservation, ecological restoration, wildlife, communication and community outreach and conservation enterprises including nature-based businesses.

However, the interest of the participants reached a peak on the second day, which was spent entirely in the field. The good weather on 18th August enabled us to reach all the important areas within the Carpathia project. Accordingly, we visited a series of tree nurseries that we have cultivated within the Dâmbovița Valley, one of the first ecological restoration sites, and we saw what persistent hard work means in order to succeed in reviving areas severely affected by clear-cuts. We presented our Educational Centre at Richita, an energy efficient building whose doors we cannot wait to open to the public. The Poiana Tămaș area and the wildlife hide at Bunea were also very important examples to demonstrate the fact that you can do nature-based tourism, and this tourism can bring in a reliable source of income for local communities. At the end of the day, we found one of the first reintroduced bison by the enclosure in the Făgăraș Mountains, the area that was their home for the first few months, until May 2020, and that will accommodate future groups of bison we plan to bring into the country. Eight bison are now roaming freely.

The last day of the meeting involved discussions and clarifications regarding what had been seen in the field and the establishment of a collaboration framework for the protection and conservation of the Făgăraș Mountains in the medium and long term.

The meeting was organized within the project “Creation of a wilderness reserve in the Southern Carpathian Mountains, Romania”, with financial support through the Endangered Landscape Programme, under activity 4.1. Information about the project can be found here.