Using Diachronic Cartography and GIS to Map Forest Landscape Changes in the Putna-Vrancea Natural Park, Romania

Abstract

The Putna-Vrancea Natural Park (PVNP) is one of the wildest mountain areas in Romania and is home to internationally important species of flora and fauna. Although the park’s area is covered by forests, the last two centuries have seen several major transformations. The aim of this article is to present a historical approach to the development of habitat areas within the PVNP, with an attempt to show both the situation before and after the establishment of its protection regime. The changes in the forest area were identified using available cartographic material from 1789, 1895, 1957, 1975, 2005, and 2018. The analysis of forest distribution according to different classes of natural factors (altitude, slope, soil type, and lithology) highlighted the early 20th century when forest cover decreased at low altitudes and slopes. However, anthropogenic factors were responsible for almost all changes. The specific socio-economic system of the Vrancea Mountains, according to which the forest was and still is owned by the inhabitants of several villages, led to periods of deforestation: burning to increase the area of pastures and the unsustainable exploitation of wood by some companies that had been granted this right by the owners. In the 1960s and 1970s, the mountain pastures were reforested, and in the last 20 years, the mountain pastures have been transformed into forests. Although the use of old maps for this type of analysis has certain limitations, the results obtained provide insight into the causes of the transformation of forest landscapes in some areas of the PVNP.