Mountain law.

This Law establishes basic rules relative to the conservation and development of mountain areas in Romania. The mountain area of Romania is delimited in accordance with principles laid down in Government Decision No. 948 of 2002 and in accordance with criteria set out in article 1 of this Law. One of the aims of the Law is maintaining and ecological balance in development of mountain areas and article 2 prescribes that the objectives of sustainable mountain development are to be achieved by the National Agency for Mountain Areas, being a division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, in a collaboration with specialized institutions, the Ministry and local authorities. Objectives principles of the mountain policy are set out in article 3. Tasks of the National Agency for mountain development are set out in article 4. Article 5 concerns organization of representation of interests of agricultural producers in mountain areas. Articles 6 and 7 make provision for an “agri-mountain” education programme at various levels of the regular school programme and other organized education. Land can be given at no costs to institutions that can prove that they will contribute to development of mountain areas. Articles 8 to 19 provide for various kinds of incentives for (agricultural) activities to be carried out in mountain areas. Article 12 concerns land consolidation, article 13 concerns soil conservation and articles 14 and 15 the use of grasslands. Grasslands in protected areas may be given in use to farmers on the basis of five-year contracts.