Maramures, Romania
Our Solutions
© WWF-Canon / Chris Martin Bahr
OEMN, through the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme, will create new partnerships with forest and water managers (state-owned and private); other local, regional and national governments responsible for agriculture, rural development and municipal/county governance; farmers (private and associations, as well as farm tourism operators; and NGOs.
New planned mechanisms include:
1) Revitailizing traditional grazing
OEMN will start a pilot project for the natural grazing of traditional cattle breeds. Farmers will use traditional methods and the natural cyclical calendar for grazing and mowing -- for example, grazing will start in the spring with post-winter vegetation growth, and mowing will start in July to allow for the natural re-seeding of grasslands. Besides creating a low-input possibility for income generation for local farmers, the project will also extend and restore the ecological functions of the abandoned sub-alpine meadows on the plateau and drive biodiversity and landscape conservation.
WWF will purchase a herd of organically certified cows and `lend´ it to one farmer partner. A contract will oblige the partner to extend his grazing territory to up to 80 ha (by renting or buying land) to maintain the required animal load. Progress toward organic certification will also be monitored (e.g. animal load/ha, use of organic fertilisers, sheltering conditions). For example, one cow/ha is the recommended animal load for biodiversity and organic production.
Any calves born are the property of the partner farmer. Some calves will later be slaughtered and some will be kept for breeding and extending the herd. The key to project success is the `revolving herd´ -- after five years, the first partner farmer will donate the same number of animals he received to another farmer who will also graze them on plateau grasslands, allowing the herd size to expand over time.
The partners will try to facilitate getting the quality, organic `green´ beef to carry a higher price on the market through developing a market plan and promoting a market niche (i.e. linking high quality beef production with conservation). A market study will be developed by WWF by June 2008.
2) Payments for environmental services
This innovative approach aims to have downstream drinking water users in the City of Baia Mare pay upstream land owners and managers for the environmental services provided through their lands (i.e. they ensure that waters are clean), especially through forests and grasslands. Contributions will be fed into a `Trust Fund´ that re-invests into improved land-use and sustainable conservation activities within the target area. Examples include paying forest managers to avoid timber extraction in protective areas (e.g. steap slopes along streams that protect river beds) or paying farmers not to use pesticides and fertilizers (Target area: ~ 15,000 ha forest, 3,000 ha grasslands). (More about `PES´)
3) New forest opportunities
The goal here is to create a framework of new economic alternatives that contributes to the maintenance of the rich biodiversity and important environmental services provided by forests. Alternatives include FSC-certified timber, non-timber products and eco-tourism.
OEMN is working here with the WWF Danube Carpathian Programme, responsible for overall plan implementation, and IKEA (a key forest user) which is financing a broader sustainable forestry project in Romania and Bulgaria. The development of a demonstration forest in Maramures will be supported, as will a proposal for a reporting system for timber flows.
