Thanks to its high diversity as regards the forest composition and structure, Romania has a great potential for harvesting several categories of wood and non-wood forests products (NWFPs). The aim of this research was to highlight the most representative NWFPs in the case of Timiș County. Four categories of NWFPs (i.e. Mushrooms, Tree products, Understory plants and Animal origin) and nineteen criteria proposed within the FP1203 COST Action European non-wood forest products network were taken into account. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used in order to evaluate both qualitative and quantitative criteria and to assess the performance of selected alternatives (i.e. NWFPs) by means of pairwise comparisons. The analyses were carried out using the Expert Choice Desktop software package. Penny bun and European hare were the most representatives non-wood forest products, when all the 19 selected criteria received an equal importance. In the view of switching the focus from wood to non-wood forest products harvesting, the forest managers should take also into consideration this kind of analyses in order to assess the potential of certain products in a particular scenario.

AHP, Expert Choice, non-wood forest products, Timiș.

environmental engineering

Presentation: oral