Protection and Sustainable cultivation of Arnica montana L. in Maramureş (Romania)

The nature park Parcul natural Munţii Maramureşului located in the north of the Romanian Carpathians is covering mountain-meadows, forest and a highly variable mosaic of cultural land consisting of hayfields, pastures and other small pieces of extended used farmland. But this valuable landscape is threatened. Especially traditional farmed meadows exhibiting high biodiversity are endangered by reforestation and the lack of maintenance due to rural depopulation. In the course of that the rare plant Arnica montana appearing on nutrient-poor open land is at risk to disappear. Furthermore the pressure on the park (illegal wood harvest and hunting) is quite high due to the poor economical situation of the local people.

To contribute to lower this exploitation and to preserve the structure as well as the biodiversity of this old-established cultural land the sustainable cultivation of the medicinal plant Arnica montana by local peasants was initiated. The product Arnicae flos will be manufactured by the farmers and directly traded to a German purchaser. The prior ambition is to protect the arnica-meadows and their biodiversity by sponsoring renaturation and maintenance activities respectively with a part of the sales revenue and by using natural populations as seed-reservoirs to increase the motivation to protect them. Furthermore improving the economical situation of the people helps to decrease the exploitation of protected areas. The park administration, as the central institution of the project will benefit by active collaboration with local people and will organize further nature-protection and educative activities. In addition the participation of a nature park assures the environmental compatibility of all realized actions. With this concept, other medicinal and aromatic plants could be cultivated in Maramureş and further transnational research projects can be realized regarding cultivation-methods, chemoecology as well as the economical impact.