The Ecotourism - Element of the Sustainable Development of the Local Rural Communities in Romania

The local rural communities of Romania have been affected by the evolution of the history in the last decades. To these there have been added the years of centralised economy and afterwards the transition towards the market economy. All of these have put the inhabitants of the villages between the temptations/obligations of leaving for the urban settlings, in many cases this leads to the phenomenon of uprooting. The last fifteen years have put the village back in the centre of many of the politicians, theorists and practicians preoccupations. The enlarged Europe also rises problems and question marks in regards to the economic and social development of the local communities in the Romanian rural environment. These uncertainties appear in a period in which we are more and more convinced of the necessity of the sustainable development, of the perpetuation of the responsible economic development, which would insure the satisfaction of society’s needs without endangering the future generations. Those presented are accompanied by a more and more accentuated tendency of the civilised world of living in good terms with the environment, of spending more time in nature, of being closer to all which is clean, alive and quiet. The number of those that ask for holidays in nature, in the rural environment is growing all over the globe. The soft tourism, in the countryside or in the middle of nature is more and more desired by the rich, but stressed people eager to return to the nature, to the life of the rural communities. All these forms of tourism are called ecotourism, and their development in Romania is only beginning. These activities play an important part in the economic development of the rural areas, which will further reflect upon their future evolution. A multidisciplinary research of this problem, combines economic, social objectives and those sustainable development of the Romanian rural communities.