Assessment of Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services in Romanian

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energy sources (coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear and wind), a substantial, although
aging, manufacturing base and opportunities for expanded development in tourism in
the Black Sea coast and in the mountains. (Economy of Romania, 2017)
The main sectors of the economy are agriculture, forestry, fishing, industry and
services (auto industry and IT & C). The volume of traffic in Romania, especially goods
transportation, has increased in recent years due to its strategic location in South-East
Europe. In the past few decades, much of the freight traffic shifted from rail to road.
A further strong increase of traffic is expected in the future. The energy sector is
dominated by state-owned companies. Fossil fuels are the country’s primary source of
energy, followed by hydroelectric power. Due to dependency on oil and gas imports from
Russia, the country has placed an increasingly heavy emphasis on nuclear energy since
the 1980s. For domestic heating/cooking rural and small-town households use almost
exclusively domestically produced wood as the main energy source. Romania has the
largest wind power potential in Southeast Europe (in 2015 installed wind power was
representing 11% of national energy grid). (Ministery of Energy, 2016)
Under the N4D project, 9 types of ecosystems have been identified in Romania
during the scientific assessment of the MAES process, with croplands occupying
most of the surface (34.96%) followed by forest ecosystems (24.57%), grasslands
(12.80%), marine and coastal ecosystems (11.74%), urban ecosystems (5%), wetlands
(4.44%), shrubs (3.70%), rivers and lakes (2.27%), rocks (0.01%).
The main pressures caused by human activities upon Romanian ecosystems
are building of grey infrastructure, urban development, intensive agriculture and forest
activities, intensive fisheries and aquaculture, mine extractions, land use changes,
introduction of invasive species, and improper waste management, which result in the
following types of impact on the environment and ecosystems: pollution, habitat
degradation and fragmentation, depletion of natural resources, Green House Gases
(GHG) growth, and climate changes.
Given current knowledge on Romanian ecosystems status available from the 2007-
2012 National summary report under Art. 17 of the Habitats Directive and from the
State of the Environment National Report (SOER) of 2013 and/or 2014, the following
prioritization has been made: wetlands, croplands, forests, marine and coastal,
freshwaters and grasslands. Wetlands deserve significant attention since bogs, mires
and fens habitats have a bad conservation status. With regards to croplands, it is
particularly important to gain further knowledge about soil, which is the basis for most
ecosystem services, and are a priority ecosystem given intensification of agriculture,
land conversion and abandonment. Freshwater ecosystems deserve consideration since
rivers are reported to have a good and moderate ecological status, 92% of natural lakes
still have a moderate ecological status, but fish species have the worse conservation
status. Forests also deserve attention since on one hand, under Art.17 of the Habitats
Directive 14% of forests are reported to have an unfavorable bad conservation status
and 41% are reported to have an unfavorable inadequate conservation status; on the
other hand, SOER2014 presents a positive image of forests with the afforested area
slightly growing (0.1%) compared to 2013 and the forest area per inhabitant having
increased from 0, 30 ha/inhabitant in 2010 to 0,32 ha/inhabitant in 2014. No information
is specifically available regarding urban ecosystems, shrubs and rocks.
When discussed with the Scientific Group under the N4D project, the status and
prioritization of ecosystems for the Romanian MAES process has been agreed as follows:
grasslands, facing a declining status with a reduction in surfaces, production, fodder
quality and biodiversity; forests followed by wetlands, both facing a declining status and
with the need to better manage the supply of floods control and drainage regulation
functions respectively; marine and coastal ecosystems with a stationary status; urban
ecosystems, croplands, freshwaters, shrubs and rocks with an improving status.
Considering data availability, the ecosystems selected for an in-depth assessment
(quantitative) by the end of the N4D project in April 2017 are forests, freshwaters,
croplands and urban ecosystems.