COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ROMANIAN AND THE MAIN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES' NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEMS

In the European Union, forests and other wooded areas cover a total of 177.8 million hectares, which represents approximately 40% of the EU total area and an area similar to that used for agricultural purposes (183.9 million hectares). Germany, Spain, France, Finland and Sweden make up over three-fifths of the area covered by forests in the EU. Our paper shows the distribution of forested areas in the EU and their importance in comparison with the agricultural area of each Member State. In 2014, the EU represents about 12 % of global timber volume harvested timber from forests and woodlands on its surfaces rising to 392.9 million m(3). Forestry, logging and related services covering timber production and extraction and harvesting of forest products that grow in the wild. In addition to industrial round wood, forests produce firewood, too. In some regions, non-timber forest products are also an important source of local income. In the research approach, we considered necessary and appropriate to perform a comparative analysis of the situation of Romanian forest similar to that of the main European Union countries, to identify measures that some of them have tried, and even managed to increase a rational exploitation of afforested areas forest resources. The results conducted to a comparative analysis of the National Forest and the main EU countries' Systems, to identify possible starting points for grounding new sustainable development strategies, given their similar experience.