A Research Note: Planning for the Carpathians

Abstract

A new journal, Geo-Carpathica, has recently been launched by the Faculty of Tourist Geography in Sibiu (part of the Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University in Bucharest), which trains specialists for the national economy (travel agents, technicians and guides) as well as professional staff (in geography, geology and tourism) and geographical researchers with a focus on tourism. The journal aims at being a highprofile scientific publication, useful to geography teachers and students, as well as to interdisciplinary researchers. Under the editorship of Ion Velcea (who started building the faculty in 1990) it reports on major theoretical and applied scientific achievements attained at national and regional levels; and it advertises at home and abroad the results of Romanian and foreign research on the Carpathians in the fields of geographical landscape and culturalscientific patrimony. The launch of Geo-Carpathica presents a suitable moment to consider the question of planning for the Carpathians. The year 2002 was dedicated as the Year of the Mountains due to widespread recognition of the biodiversity values of mountainous regions and their role in water supply, and a complementary appreciation of the need to safeguard rural communities that play a crucial role in protecting these resources and to ensure their survival through sustainable development geared to the needs of each individual mountain environment (Backmeroff et al, 1996). It is not by any means clear just what constitutes the best way forward but this short article seeks to raise the issue of planning in mountain regions with recent experience in the Carpathians in mind. It also offers a survey of recent literature on the