Paper short abstract:

The paper presents the connections between the traditional agricultural and pastoral practices and the biodiversity, and how these two aspects are affected by the social changes of today (migration, subsidies).

Paper long abstract:

There is a strong connection between the biodiversity and the agricultural and pastoral practices still in use today in the northern part of Romania. For example, the mowing begins at a time that is established by the ripeness of plants, and the signal for this is given by the plant locally called "Clocotici", the Rhinanthus angustifolius (lat.) plant; feasts and celebrations also are the main time coordinates for the begining and the ending of the transhumance in the mountains, when the summer farms go to the mountain in the beginning of May - old celebration of St. George on the Julian callendar, and when they came back in the village, on beginning of November, old celebration of St. Dimitri, on the Julian callendar. Between 2010 and 2012, together with a research team of biologists and historians of agriculture, we have conducted a research in two villages in the mountain region of Maramures, concerning the traditional agricultural and pastoral practices and how they are affected by the changes of today: migration to other countries, the rules of the subsidies that people can choose, the lack of shepherds, diminishing of the number of sheep and cows that a family will breed. The presentation will deal with the effects of the changes upon the traditional agricultural and pastoral practices, but also with the effects on the biodiversity of the region.