Human Pressure on the Environment in the “Mun¸tii Maramure¸sului” Natural Park - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 266

The “finger-prints” of this activity shall exist for a long time though. Besides
the social impact related to unemployment, other consequences are related to
water pollution by the mine waters, the aesthetic visual impact of the wastes, the
accumulation of heavy metals on the banks of âsla and Viseu rivers, mine roads,
tumbling buildings, biodiversity loss - especially aquatic species (amphibians,
Hucho hucho ), habitat's fragmentation, etc.
Another element of impact is represented by the presence of Colbu I, II and
Novat tailing ponds, which repeatedly polluted the area with heavy metals. Between
1994 and 2003 waste from mining activity at Baia Borsa was stored in the Novat-
Rosu tailings pond in the upper Viseu catchment. However, in March 2000, the
tailings dam failed releasing approximately 100,000 m 3 of contaminated water and
20,000 ton of mineral-rich solid waste, which was routed downstream through the
Rivers Novat, Vaser and Viseu into the River Tisa (Bird et al., 2008 ).
Moreover, the unprotected tailing ponds from Vinderel area are a source of
pollution for Repedea, Ruscova, Viseu Rivers.
21.2.5 Tourist Activities
The Park is extremely attractive to the public due to its local attractions: the nar-
row gauge train line (“Mocanita”) which runs along the Vaser Valley; the wooden
churches; the Maramures gates; local tradition; the history and culture of its
surroundings and the local landscape.
The area of “Muntii Maramuresului” Natural Park is visited for its cultural,
historical and traditional objects, such as the wooden churches (Ieud, Rozavlea,
Bogdan Voda, etc.), the monasteries (Moisei, Bârsana, Izvorul Tamaduirii) and the
traditional festivities during the year, such as Daisies Fest from Repedea, the Hora
in Prislop, Christmas, etc. However, the main tourist attraction of the park remains
Vaser Valley, due to the steam locomotive and the narrow gauge train, which brings
thousands of tourists every year.
The evaluation that the park administration team has carried out on the tourists
visiting Vaser Valley shows that only a small share of them is interested in natural
values - approximately 25%. The reason for that is mainly related to the lack of
necessary tourism infrastructure on most of the park area, as well as the lack of
promotion for the associated objects, mostly inexistent in the western part - Borsa,
and Borsa Complex areas. Tourists could bring serious benefits to this area in terms
of park infrastructure development by paying visit taxes in Vaser Valley; chalets,
hotels and guest-houses in the park area; for the local communities in the park area,
by developing rural tourism and promoting the handcrafted products.
In the “Muntii Maramuresului” Natural Park disagreements have in time cropped
up in matters of environmental protection between some managers and visitors,
especially whenever tourists, willing to visit the Vaser Valley, outnumbered the
area's bearing capacity, or when biodiversity conservation activities are at stake.
The main causes and effects of this kind of conflicts are connected to water and
environment pollution, waste deposits, hearths, car washing, all of these having a