Researching and Overseeing Environmental Legislation to Ensure the Well-Being of Communities from Protected Areas

Twenty-six percent of Romania’s territory is designated as Natura 2000 protected sites, but there are few initiatives to protect these areas. Communities living in protected areas face restrictions on their activities without compensation and are rarely included in decision-making. Natura 2000 decided to tackle this issue and organised several meetings with coalition members to research and monitor environmental legislation and to support the well-being of affected communities. These meetings were followed by scientific studies and a descriptive report, later included in Natura’s pilot database on relevant legislation. After analysing the data, Natura 2000 held several working and multi-stakeholder meetings, including three online and two in-person sessions. The resulting proposals on how to reconcile local community needs with environmental legislation were compiled into a first draft of solutions and submitted to authorities.