Natural grazing in Maramures

"Do not travel further. You have found what you were looking for. A place where rural, old-fashioned life is still intact. Where people still live off the land, like their parents, and generations before them. Where small villages, full of local customs and history, lie in the rolling hills and sleepy landscapes." This is how Maramures is described in the Lonely Planet guide (2004). The landscape that tourists find so beautiful exists due to the hard work of the local population. The reality is that they are finding it increasingly difficult to earn enough to make ends meet.

If no other sources of income can be found, agriculture in Maramures will decline. And with it, the open landscape, social life, and richness of plants and animals.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has asked Stroming to outline the possibilities for alternative income for the area. The report was prepared in close collaboration with ARK and a local WWF team.

A new Economy

Possible pillars of a new economy include:

• Free-roaming cattle and wilderness meat
• Tourism
• Water retention and erosion prevention

The benefits of free-roaming cattle are not limited to wilderness meat. The cattle keep the landscape open, and thus attractive to tourists. In the longer term, natural services such as water retention could also generate income. Stroming and ARK have detailed the direct costs and benefits of wilderness meat in a separate report.