Natural resources of Piatra Craiului for livelihood improvement of local communities.

In the Piatra Craiului National Park an inventory was made on the role natural areas have and can have for local communities, in order to find alternative livelihood strategies which could improve the livelihoods of people without hazarding the natural resources. Through a stakeholder analysis, semi-structured interviews and workshops this information was gathered. Conflicts between several stakeholders seem to exist about the foundation of the National Park, use of natural resources and the presence of wild animals in the park. Although the villagers are mainly dependent on jobs in surrounding cities and retirement pensions for their income, they derive an additional income from their cattle and agricultural products that grow inside the National Park and are mainly used autonomously. However, the people have a low income and because of several dynamics, they have hardly any alternative ideas to improve their situation. A suitable natural resource based strategy might be tourism. Local communities can use the 'Piatra Craiului National Park' to create a tourist product for the village. To achieve this idea, an improvement of communication between stakeholders is needed. In this way, the stakeholders in the area will become professional managers in sustaining the traditional way of living and the natural area.