In brief

  • The Ministry of the Environment has approved the first National Catalogue of Biodiversity Priority Areas: 472 areas, of which 471 are terrestrial and one marine, Vama Veche – 2 Mai.
  • In these areas, the activities allowed are limited by law. Under the non-intervention regime any human activity is prohibited, with three exceptions: scientific research, environmental education and ecotourism involving no construction.
  • The catalogue gives the code and, for the most part, the name of each area, but not its boundaries. The maps and conservation measures are to be published on the ministry’s website within 15 days, that is, by 15 September 2026.
Act: MMAP Order no. 1.786/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 726 of 31 August 2026
In force from: 31 August 2026

As of 31 August 2026, Romania has its official list of land where conservation comes before any other use. Order no. 1.786/2026 of the minister of the environment, waters and forests, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 726 of 31 August 2026, approves the National Catalogue of Biodiversity Priority Areas. It is the act that gives concrete content to Chapter III^1, inserted into Government Emergency Ordinance No 57/2007 by Government Emergency Ordinance No 25/2026, the framework the Constitutional Court examined in the summer, when it left the biodiversity law standing, with a dissenting opinion signed by six judges.

A biodiversity priority area, abbreviated ZPB throughout the catalogue, is not a new protected natural area. It is a label laid over territories that, for the most part, already had a status: scientific reserves, strict or full protection zones inside parks, strictly protected zones in biosphere reserves, virgin and quasi-virgin forests, natural monuments, nature reserves. To these are added, under Article 40^3(i) of the ordinance, terrestrial and marine surfaces that fall into none of the above categories and that can be designated only with the owner’s consent.

The catalogue has four parts. Table no. 1 covers 29 areas in national and nature parks and in the „Danube Delta” Biosphere Reserve, among them Domogled – Valea Cernei, Retezat, the Rodna Mountains, Cheile Nerei – Beusnita, Calimani, Semenic – Cheile Carasului, Cozia and Piatra Craiului. Table no. 2 covers 342 areas in other protected natural areas, from the Fagaras Mountains and the Northern Dobrogea Plateau to the River Prut and Cheile Lapusului. Table no. 3 has two sections: 62 virgin and quasi-virgin forests and 38 areas requiring the consent provided for in Article 40^8. At the end, a single marine area. The structure of the ministry that keeps the catalogue has changed since: Government Decision no. 698/2026 cuts its staffing to 511 posts.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that the regime of activities in Government Emergency Ordinance No 57/2007 becomes applicable to a closed list, not to an abstract category. Article 40^5 provides that in areas under the non-intervention regime any human activity is prohibited, except for scientific research, environmental education and ecotourism requiring no construction or investment. Article 40^6 allows, in areas under active management, eleven types of activity, among them rational mowing and grazing, ecological restoration work, traditional activities using renewable resources within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem, control of invasive species and emergency intervention for human safety.

The second effect is a short, checkable deadline. Article 2 of the order requires the Ministry of the Environment to publish on its own website, within 15 days of entry into force, that is, by 15 September 2026, the documents provided for in Article 40^7(1) for each area in the catalogue: the substantiation form, which also contains the conservation measures, the vector mapping documentation in Stereo 70 coordinates, in .shp format, showing the boundaries of the area, and the opinion of the Romanian Academy. Until then, the catalogue says which the areas are, but not where they begin and end.

The third effect concerns pastures. For areas overlapping permanent pastures, the order was issued with the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture, no. 3.874 of 3 August 2026. Article 3 of the order adds a permanent rule: any subsequent change to the substantiation form or to the mapping documentation for these areas likewise requires the opinion of the agriculture authority. In other words, boundaries cannot be moved across a pasture without agriculture knowing about it.

The fourth effect concerns external reporting. Article 4 requires the environmental authority to transmit the database of priority areas in accordance with the procedures laid down by the European Commission and the European Environment Agency. The catalogue thus also becomes Romania’s contribution to the European record of strictly protected surfaces.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until now, Chapter III^1 existed but was empty of content. Government Emergency Ordinance No 25/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 282 of 7 April 2026, inserted ten new articles into Government Emergency Ordinance No 57/2007, from Article 40^1 to Article 40^10, defining the priority areas, their categories, the two management regimes, the documents needed for designation and the requirement of the owner’s consent. What was missing was the list. The prohibitions in Article 40^5 could not be applied anywhere, because no area had been designated.

The way Romania’s protection map reads also changes. The codes in the catalogue show where each area comes from: 136 entries carry the RONPA prefix, meaning protected natural areas of national interest, 114 are ROSAC and 93 ROSCI, that is, Natura 2000 habitat sites, 27 are ROSPA, bird protection sites, one is ROMAB, the „Danube Delta” Biosphere Reserve, 62 are PVCV, virgin and quasi-virgin forests, and 38 carry the ROOECM prefix, reserved for surfaces that are not classic protected areas. In other words, almost the whole catalogue overlaps protections that already existed, and the legal novelty is the intensity of the regime, not the perimeter.

Part of the catalogue remains, for now, without a name. The 38 areas in section 2 of Table no. 3 are listed only with a serial number and a ZPB code, without the „Denumirea” column, the name column, that every other table has. They are precisely the areas which, under Article 40^8, are designated with the consent of the owner, of the administrative-territorial unit or of the administrator, depending on whether the property belongs to a private person, to the commune or to the State.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • For the first time there is a public, numbered list of the areas under the strictest conservation regime, and every entry has a unique code that can be tracked over time.
  • The deadline for publishing the maps and the conservation measures is short and written into the act: 15 days from entry into force.
  • The 62 virgin and quasi-virgin forests are listed individually, by name, so they leave the zone of approximation in which they sat for years.
  • Areas overlapping permanent pastures cannot be modified without the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture, so owners and livestock farmers have a second institutional filter.
  • The data enter the records of the European Commission and the European Environment Agency, so the list becomes verifiable from outside the country as well.

What remains a problem

  • The catalogue contains no boundaries, yet the prohibitions in Articles 40^5 and 40^6 apply from the date it enters into force, 15 days before the maps are published.
  • The 38 areas in section 2 appear only with a code, without a name, so nobody outside the owners who gave their consent can identify them.
  • The catalogue does not say which area falls under the non-intervention regime and which under active management, even though everything that can be done on the ground depends on it.
  • The footnote to Tables nos 1 and 2 says that those lists also include areas subject to the administrator’s consent, but it does not mark which of the 371 entries they are.
  • The order provides no procedure by which an owner would learn that their land has entered the catalogue, other than consulting a list of codes published in the Official Gazette of Romania.

Practical advice

  1. If you own land inside or next to a national park, a Natura 2000 site or a reserve, look up the name in Tables nos 1 and 2 of the annex. There are 371 named entries, and the appearance of one of them means that the regime in Article 40^5 or Article 40^6 applies to that surface.
  2. Wait for the documents to be published on the website of the Ministry of the Environment, which has to happen by 15 September 2026. That is where you will find the exact boundaries, in .shp format, and the conservation measures, the only documents from which it can be seen whether a particular plot is included or not.
  3. If you work a permanent pasture overlapping an area in the catalogue, remember that Article 40^6(d) allows mowing and grazing, but „limitate la intensitatea necesară pentru optimizarea valorii de conservare”, limited to the intensity needed to optimise the conservation value. The actual level is set through the conservation measures in the substantiation form, not by past practice.
  4. Do not start construction work in an area listed in the catalogue without checking the management regime. Under the non-intervention regime, not even ecotourism may involve construction or investment.
  5. If you are a mayor and the commune owns land that has been included, check whether there was a local council resolution giving the consent provided for in Article 40^8(b). It is the condition for designating areas in the category under Article 40^3(i).
  6. Write down the code of the area, not just the name. The ZPB codes are unique and will be the search key both in the documents on the ministry’s website and in the reports to the European Environment Agency.

Frequently asked questions

What is a biodiversity priority area?
It is a category inserted into Government Emergency Ordinance No 57/2007 by Government Emergency Ordinance No 25/2026. It covers scientific reserves, strict or full protection zones inside parks, strictly protected zones in biosphere reserves, virgin and quasi-virgin forests, the UNESCO beech forest site, natural monuments, nature reserves and other terrestrial or marine surfaces designated with the owner’s consent.
How many areas are in the catalogue?
472 in total: 29 in Table no. 1, 342 in Table no. 2, 62 virgin and quasi-virgin forests, 38 areas requiring the consent provided for in Article 40^8, and one marine area, Vama Veche – 2 Mai.
What am I allowed to do on land included in the catalogue?
It depends on the management regime. Under the non-intervention regime, only scientific research, environmental education and ecotourism requiring no construction or investment are allowed. Under active management, the list in Article 40^6 adds, among other things, rational mowing and grazing, conservation and restoration work, traditional activities within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and the control of invasive species.
Where do I find the exact boundaries of an area?
On the website of the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests. Article 2 of the order requires the publication, within 15 days of entry into force, of the substantiation form, the vector mapping documentation in .shp format and the opinion of the Romanian Academy, for every area in the annex.
Can my private land be included without my consent?
No, not for the category provided for in Article 40^3(i), that is, surfaces that are not already protected natural areas. There, Article 40^8 requires the owner’s consent in the form of a private written document. For land already inside a national park, a reserve or a protected site, the regime follows from the existing status of the area.
What do the codes in the catalogue mean?
The prefix shows where the area comes from: RONPA for protected natural areas of national interest, ROSAC and ROSCI for Natura 2000 habitat conservation sites, ROSPA for special bird protection areas, ROMAB for the biosphere reserve, PVCV for virgin and quasi-virgin forests, ROOECM for the remaining surfaces. The ZPB suffix marks the status of biodiversity priority area.
Can I propose a new area myself?
Yes. Article 40^2 provides that proposals are made on the initiative of the central public authority for environmental protection or of any natural or legal person, on the basis of the Methodology for identifying biodiversity priority areas, approved by order of the minister, with the opinion of the Romanian Academy.
Can the catalogue be amended?
Yes, by order of the same authority. For areas overlapping permanent pastures, Article 3 of the order requires any subsequent change to the substantiation form or to the mapping documentation to be made with the opinion of the central public authority for agriculture.

Editorial analysis

The act does something that no strategy and no plan had done until now: it turns a legal category into a list of 472 numbered entries. The difference is not cosmetic. Until 30 August, the ban on carrying out any human activity in a non-intervention area was a rule without an addressee; from 31 August it has 472 possible addressees, each with a code. It is exactly the step that Romanian environmental legislation usually misses, and here it was taken.

What the code counts show is that the novelty is not territorial. 136 entries are protected natural areas of national interest, 234 are Natura 2000 sites, one is the Danube Delta. That is 371 out of 472, almost 79%, overlapping already protected surfaces. The genuinely new surfaces are the 62 virgin and quasi-virgin forests, which leave the forestry inventory and enter a legal regime of their own, and the 38 areas designated with consent. The catalogue does not extend the protection map, it tightens the regime over part of it.

The calendar says something too. Government Emergency Ordinance No 25/2026 entered into force on 7 April 2026 and gave the ministry two months, that is, until 7 June 2026, to approve the identification methodology. The opinion of the Romanian Academy on the catalogue is dated 27 July 2026, the agriculture opinion 3 August 2026, and the order was signed on 28 August and published on 31 August. Almost three months passed between the deadline for the methodology and the publication of the catalogue, and nowhere does the order mention the number and date of the methodology on the basis of which the 472 areas were identified, even though Article 40^2 makes it a condition of the proposal.

The most important practical tension is between the date of entry into force and the date the maps are published. The prohibitions in Article 40^5 apply from 31 August 2026, because the order provides no other date. The mapping documentation appears by 15 September. For those 15 days, a rule that can prohibit any human activity produces effects over surfaces whose boundaries are not public. For a landowner, a forest district or a town hall, the only source of information is a list of codes and names, 38 of which do not even have a name.

What should be changed

  • A name column for the 38 areas in section 2 as well. All the other 434 entries in the catalogue have a name. Without one, the only people who can know which surface is meant are those who gave their consent, and a neighbour, a buyer or a forestry operator has no way of finding out even which county the area is in.
  • Marking in the table the areas subject to the administrator’s consent. The identical footnote to Tables nos 1 and 2 says that those lists „includ și zone care sunt supuse acordului administratorului conform art. 40^8 lit. c)”, that they also include areas subject to the administrator’s consent under Article 40^8(c), without saying which ones. A yes-or-no column would settle the ambiguity for 371 entries, at the cost of a single letter per row.
  • The management regime should be set out in the catalogue. The difference between non-intervention and active management decides whether a surface can still be mown, grazed or worked. Today it is found only in the substantiation form of each area. A column in the annex would put the information where people look for it, that is, in the Official Gazette of Romania.
  • Aligning the date of entry into force with the publication of the maps. If the documents are published within 15 days, the regime of activities should take effect from that same date, not 15 days earlier. Otherwise, the first half of September remains an interval in which nobody can prove either that they complied with the prohibition or that they breached it.
  • A public service for querying by coordinates. A form where you enter a land registry number or a pair of coordinates and which answers whether the surface falls within a priority area would turn the 472 .shp files into usable information. Without it, checking requires mapping software, and the catalogue stays accessible only to specialists.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 726 of 31 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 104 KB the act starts on page 4

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.