Abstract

The virgin forests are the most complex forest ecosystems having a high degree of naturalness and providing precious information and sustainable management models for forestry practices as well as for biodiversity conservation. Some of the most essential virgin forests from Romania have already been nominated as protected areas (mainly strict forest reserves), but others are well isolated, still have an anonymous status, and were protected by their geographic and socio-economic conditions. Nowadays, they are investigated through national project research and the results are included in a National Catalogue. Additional efforts are necessary to identify all the potential virgin forests in the area, analyze their characteristics and validate them as virgin forests as well as establish them as protected areas.

Keywords:Virgin forests; Quasi-virgin forests; Naturalness; Sustainable biodiversity conservation; Forest management models