ROMANIA'S MOUNTAIN AREAS- PRESENT AND FUTURE IN THEIR WAY TO A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The paper purpose was to analyze the present situation of the mountain areas in Romania from a socio-demographic, economic and environmental point of view in order to identify the main positive and negative aspects and to establish what objectives and measures have to be considered for assuring the sustainable development of the mountain regions in the coming future. The statistical data provided by Eurostat, FAO, National Institute of Statistics and National Agency for Mountain Areas were statistically processed in their dynamics using trend regression equations, graphical illustration and comparisons. The results pointed out that the Carpathians cover 37.8% of Romania's area and are predominantly rural. The share of the mountain municipalities is just 37.8%(12th position in Europe), the residents account for 5.53 million (6th position) meaning 25% in the total population (11th position), agriculture (mainly animal growing) and forestry are the main activities. In 2021, in the mountain regions there were registered 3,147 producers who carried out 1,164 mountain products, the highest weight belonging to vegetal, dairy and beekeeping products whose sale was assured by 135 Local Gastronomic Points. The contribution of the mountain areas to GDP was Euro 48.7 million, for which Romania came on the 8th position among other European countries. The actual challenges the mountain areas are facing are: the decline and aging of the population, migration of young people to the cities, weak infrastructure, livestock decrease, grasslands degradation, weak promotion of mountain products, lack of connectivity and communication between settlements, a low valorization of the natural and human resources. In consequence, as the Mountain Law provides, it is needed a new approach regarding the development of the mountain economy by valorizing in a more effective way all the resources, paying attention to the diversification of the activities, creating new jobs, stimulating entrepreneurship to increase production (agriculture, forestry, handicrafts etc) and encourage more services (education, medical, cultural, tourism, trade, credit etc), facilities for supporting young people to remain in the localities of origin, improving infrastructure (roads, bridges, houses and village restoration, connectivity to IT and mobile network, digitalization etc), involving both the local authorities and all the residents to intensify their efforts to support the mountain areas in their way to a sustainable development upwards 2030.