Clean mountains for the Romanian national mountain day!

By Danut Ungureanu, Director of the Romanian National Agency for Mountain Areas

Each year on the 14th of September, we are celebrating the ”National Mountain Day” in Romania. This date is traditionally the end of pasture grazing in the Romanian Carpathians.

The motto for the National Mountain Day celebration this year has been ”Mountains matter! Keep the mountains clean!”

In order to highlight this important occasion, the National Agency for Mountain Area has organised 22 events to clean the environment in 17 mountainous counties accross the country: Brașov, Bistrița-Năsăud, Suceava, Covasna, Vrancea, Alba, Vâlcea, Mureș, Neamț, Caraș-Severin, Maramureș, Sibiu, Harghita, Cluj, Bacău, Hunedoara, Dâmbovița.

These environment cleaning activities have taken place between 10th and 18th September 2021 and were organised by the National Agency for Mountain Area, with the support of local authorities in mountain areas.

The staff from the head office  of the National Agency for Mountain Area and local representatives from Mountain Development Offices and Centers have taken part in these events, together with partners from schools, children clubs, associations and other volunteers.

In the same context, two other important scientific events have also been organised:

• The Scientific Conference ”The sustainable development of the mountain area – Trends and perspectives in the post-pandemic period”, organised by: The National Agency for Mountain Area, The Center for Mountain Economy of the Romanian Academy (The National Institute for Economic Research “Costin C Kirițescu”), The National Research and Development Institute for Animal Biology and Nutrition (INCDBNA-IBNA Balotești), National Research and Development Institute for Food Bioresources – IBA Bucharest, The Mountain Forum of Romania and the National Agency for Mountain Rural Development “Romontana”.
• The round table ”Mountain matters”, organised by the National Agency for Mountain Area & Vâlcea County Library “Antim Ivireanul”.

All these activities aimed at raising awareness about the importance of the mountains, their resources and about mountain communities, among various categories of participants: from children and students to adult population. Involving schools, children clubs, youth and professional associations, research institutions, government organisations and local authorities, proved to be a good occasion for team work with different generations, with different occupations and different interests, but for the same noble purpose: the protection of nature and and a cleaner mountain environment.