ECOLOGICAL TOURISM IN ROMANIA - MOUNTAIN BIKING, AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON SEMENIC MOUNTAIN AREA

Environmental pollution is one of the greatest problems the world faces today and the lack of strict environmental rules allows a further environment disturbing. There are different factors that create environmental pollution but the most important is assumed to be the human influence. The Semenic Mountain Area is located in one of the largest districts in Romania, Caras - Severin. Its central part is The Semenic Mountain Resort which is situated at 1400m altitude. Although there was a big touristic activity in this area, in the last 20 years almost nobody invested here. Further investments must be well controlled in order to avoid disturbing the environment. The paper presents an overview of the area around the Semenic Mountain Resort and National Park Semenic - Cheile Carasului from the present situation and a proposal for touristic development using mountain biking according to environmental protection policies.