Acta Technica Corviniensis

1.ERIKA STANCIUFROM THE RETEZAT NATIONAL PARK TOEUROPE'S "YELLOWSTONE" – SEEDS FOR THOUGHTSON THE ESTABLISHMENT AND EFFICIENT MANAGEMENTOF EUROPE’S LARGEST PROTECTED AREACOVERING THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERNCARPATHIANS IN ROMANIA AND SERBIAAbstract:The Carpathian Mountains and the Danube Delta are key biodiversity and wilderness hotspots ofRomania and, indeed, for Europe. Large areas of forests in the Carpathians and extended wetlandareas are places where wildlife can find a refuge and where people longing for solitude and beautycan enjoy them. Where are these places and what should we do to keep them? The proposallaunched in this paper comes with the intent to convince that it is not too late to maintain theCarpathians and, even if we can not maintain the entire mountain range in its present status, thereare some key areas that are already protected to certain extent and can become the largest protectedarea of Europe.Keywords:CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS, BIODIVERSITY AND WILDERNESS, RETEZAT NATIONAL PARKTHE CARPATHIANS – A KEY AREA FORCONSERVATION IN THE WORLDThe Carpathians arch over an area of more than200,000 km² in Central and Eastern Europe andinclude territory of seven countries: CzechRepublic (CZ), Hungary (HU), Poland (PL),Romania (RO), Serbia (SR), Slovakia (SK) andUkraine (UA). Altitudes vary from 300 to 2655 mabove sea level. Three sub-regions are defined inthe Carpathian arc: the Western Carpathians,which are partly located in SK, PL, HU and CZ;the Eastern Carpathians, which cover parts ofSK, PL, UA and RO; and the SouthernCarpathians, which are entirely located inRomania and Serbia. The mountains arecomposed mainly of sequences of sandy rocks(flysh formations) with small parts of limestoneor magmatic rock. Former glaciers have curvedout lakes at the highest points, whilst countlessvalleys owe were created by the rivers. Theregion receives twice as much rainfall as thesurrounding area, and this freshwater feeds theDanube, Vistula and Dnister and their majortributaries Prut, Aluta and Tisza, tending up inthe Black and Baltic Sea. More than 80% of© copyright FACULTY of ENGINEERING – HUNEDOARA, ROMANIA 13