CONSERVATION OF THE AREA

The area is under a variety of immediate threats. The Government of Romania supports the establishment of a Natura 2000 site covering about 100,000 ha in the Saxon Villages soon after Romania’s accession to EU membership in 2007. The Natura 2000 Network is the European Union’s main instrument for nature conservation.

Threats

Although this ancient and special landscape remains substantially intact, the whole area is extremely fragile. Application of artificial fertilizers would seriously damage or destroy many of the wildflower meadows, allowing coarse or vigorous grasses to invade. Research has identified a number of the most frequent and substantial threats to wild plants and animals and their habitats in the Saxon Villages, which must be addressed in conservation strategies for the area.

• Intensification of grassland management, with nutrient over-enrichment by fertilizers or high stocking rates, or over-grazing, especially by sheep.
• Abandonment or reduction of traditional land management practices such as mowing or scrub clearance.
• Unsustainable forestry practices such as clear-felling with loss of tree cover, or planting with exotic trees.
• Drainage or alteration of the small surviving wetlands.
• Further spread of invasive weeds, especially aggressive alien species such as Japanese Knotweed.
• Unsuitable infrastructure development for tourism or industry.
• Unsustainable collection of medicinal plants or other wild species.
• Loss of ruderal plants around villages, including medicinal herbs and other species of economic or cultural value.
• Climate change, perhaps with increased drought.
• Lack of public knowledge and information about the rich ecological and cultural value of the area.

Landscape-scale conservation and Natura 2000

Despite the superlative natural environment of so much of the area of the Saxon Villages, only a tiny part is at present included in nature reserves. This emphasizes the importance of establishing a comprehensive framework of protected habitats. Meanwhile, the immediate priority is to improve the future for agriculture and to increase the incomes of farmers, yet ensuring that nature conservation has a central role in countryside management.

Ultimately the special landscape and biodiversity of the Saxon Villages will require some degree of statutory protection. Landscape-scale conservation will prevent fragmentation of the extensive, rich, inter-dependent habitats. The Sighisoara-Tarnave Mare is ideally suited and a potential Natura 2000 site, under which habitats and associated species would be protected, with economic activities permitted that do not damage these habitats.

In the case of such a human-influenced, semi-natural landscape, traditional economic activities are in fact necessary to protect the habitats and species. These activities will be supported by EU grants under the Natura 2000 model. Within a Natura 2000 area, a mosaic of other protection measures can be taken, suited to local conditions.

The following small reserves already exist:

• The Breite - a remarkable plateau (German, ‘Broad’), 120 ha. of grassland dotted with mature oaks. It lies 1.5 km west of Sighiøoara, just off the main road, surrounded by dense hornbeam and beech. Many of the trees oaks are 400–500 years old. Some have been pollarded in the past; many have conspicuous dead limbs or are ‘stag-headed’. There are no younger trees, but plenty of seedlings and saplings due to low grazing levels in recent years. The Breite is ancient wood-pasture, maintained by centuries of grazing. Several interesting or rare birds occur, including Hobby, Ural Owl, Black Woodpecker and Hoopoe.
• Downy Oak Reserves - the sub-Mediterranean, hairy-leaved Downy Oak (Quercus pubescens) is protected in two small nature reserves, Wolzen Hill (11.9 ha) near Sighiøoara and Gotca Mare (6.8 ha) in a remote valley south of Criø.. The ground flora of these rather open woods contains many interesting plants, for example pink-flowered Burning Bush (Dictamnus albus).

Local support

The key to the success of any protected area must be active local support. Without this, conservation measures cannot be implemented successfully. Therefore they should, from the outset, be designed with local consultation to ensure benefits and ‘buy-in’ by local communities. Local benefits will be persuasive: an economic case can and should be made for protected areas in landscapes on which people depend for a living.