In Romania, the most well-known non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are represented by forest fruits, edible mushrooms and medicinal plants. According to Romsilva, the National Forest Administration, the quantity of forest fruits harvested in Romania is more than 3000 tons/year. The aim of this paper is to synthesize forest fruits present in Brasov County. In this county, mountain regions are covered by coniferous forests, mixture forests (beech and coniferous) and beech forests. In the hills and plateau regions there are broad-leaved forests, prevailing beech and common oak; the main forest species often met on low hills and high plains are Quercus species. Therefore, the most important forest fruits that were found in this area are: blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.), blackberry (Rubus hirtus W. et K.), elder (Sambucus nigra L.), Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), Juniperus sp. fruits, wild apple (Malus sylvestris), hazelnut (Coryllus avellana L.) and mast (Fagus sp). The most important forest fruits from Brasov County were determined with an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) developed by Thomas Saaty and based on 19 well-established criteria. These criteria were used in other papers that have studied non-wood forest products from Romania. The analytical hierarchy process has emphasized hazelnut and blueberry as the most requested forest fruits while blueberries are the most important fruits from Brasov County according AHP hierarchy. Regarding harvesting cost and tools, blueberries are the most expensive berries while blackberries are the chippest ones. These extreme values of hierachy are the same when experts analyse criteria „Complexity of harvesting process” in which blueberries are representing the highest harvesting process while blackberries representing the lowest harvesting process. Using the analytic hierarchy process in estimating the importance of fruit species from a certain County proved to be an efficient method to classify them based on the largest quantity of criteria that can be considered.

forest fruits, Brasov County, NWFP, AHP, blueberry.

environmental engineering

Presentation: poster