Romania Living Lab: Iedera, Romania

Name of site: Iedera, Romania

Responsible person : Lucian Curtu

Contact e-mail: lucian.curtu@unitbv.ro

GPS coordinates: 45° 2'37.43"N 25°39'34.61"E

Approximate size (km²) of Living Lab: 20 km²

Description of the area: 2000 ha of broadleaf forest, mainly Quercus, Fagus and Carpinus. Private ownership and private administration. Management plan provides shelterwood system and thinnings.

Forest resilience challenges:  

A main aspect regarding the resilience of the trees is represented by the average annual increase of temperatures, and implicitly of the dry periods. Thus, the stands affected by destabilizing factors (droughts, wind blows, silvicultural interventions-phenomena that represent a stress / change in the structure of the forests) are characterized by a lower growth capacity, during the disturbing period, and usually followed by a recovery after the disturbed events. The following challenges are happening due to climate change with direct impact on ecosystem services (less water supply in soil). However, the average annual temperatures in the production unit represent a high degree of favorability for the main tree species species: European beech and sessile oak.

What are the main ecosystem services provided by the forest?

In addition to the production of timber, which is the main goal of the forestry household, the forest provides several other very valuable products, such as game, berries, edible mushrooms, medicinal plants, honey resources, forest seeds, tannins, resin, etc. Due to the local conditions of topogaphy and settlement, the main requirements of the owner of this forest (both productive and protective), need to be correlated with the need for these stands to provide priority protection of land and soil.