Benefits Brought by the Abundance and Importance of Forest Fruits from Bistrita-Nasaud County

Abstract

Non-woody forest products (NWFPs) represent an important forest resource which can be exploited, becoming in this way, an important economic role in human societies. In addition, NWFPs are used both in households and as commercial products for human well-being. Due to the fact that Romania has a wide variety of relief forms, numerous NWFPs can be found on her territory, the most important ones being the forest fruits. Their benefits come especially from their chemical composition, because of the richness in vitamins and antioxidant properties, being used in alimentation, medicine and the cosmetic industry. On the other hand, their importance is gained by the social and economic impacts, most of them being positive. The paper exposes the most representative forest fruits from Bistrita-Năsăud County which were analysed by using an analytical hierarchy process, being a multi-criteria method in decision making. Based on this process, forest fruits were classified by 19 well-established criteria.

Keywords

• analytical hierarchy process
• forest fruits
• market potential
• multi-criteria
• non-woody forest products.