The Touristic Capitalisation of Cultural Services Offered by Natura 2000 Sites. Experiences from Romanian Less Developed Regions

Abstract

In order to protect the geographical areas with valuable ecosystems and for their sustainable valorisation in economic purposes, in the last 20 years in Romania have been delimited many protected natural areas, which were integrated into the European network of Natura 2000 sites. This study aims to identify solutions for a better capitalization of the tourist potential offered by Natura 2000 sites, located in non-traditional tourist areas. At the same time, using the results of the evaluation of ecosystem services we aim to provide policy makers an instrument to integrate environmental objectives, into the development policies of neighbouring communities with the Natura 2000 sites. To this end, the authors realised an adaptation of the integrated European system of tools for assessing ecosystem services, to the case of cultural services identified in 15 Natura 2000 sites, located in the North East Development Region of Romania.

Keywords

• ecosystem services
• economic valorisation
• sustainable tourism