ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITIES AND CONSTRAINTS IN THE VASCAU PLATEAU (NATURA 2000 PROTECTED AREA, ROMANIA)

This study offers an initial assessment on conservation status and socioeconomic constraints in anew established protected area: the Vascau plateau (the Apuseni mountains, Romania). The Vascau plateau is a protected area of 4815 ha which was legally established in 2008 and is a component of the Network European Ecological Natura 2000 (as Site of Community Interest: ROSCI2000). The elements of interest of the area are constituted by the presence natural habitats (caves and forest) and threatened species (bats, wildcat and marsh frog) area, which are vulnerable even to minor changes. From a legal perspective, the protected area does not allow economic activities which are destructive to the environmental components but this area is affected by some environmental impacts. In order to establish the main sectors where intervention of conservation actions needs to be effective an initial appraisal based on rapid impact assessment matrix (RIAM) was used. This method allows a coarse classification of the environmental impacts over the studied territory, in order to facilitate the realising of an impact map by using GIS techniques. Incorporating multi-criteria analysis in this map allows the identification of the ecological vulnerable sectors which need a future conservation management at local scale.