THE MANAGEMENT OF NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS IN BIHOR COUNTY

Bihor County is renowned for the quantity and quality of the non-wood forest products (NWFPs) harvested over time. Even if the potential of marketing of NWFPs is high, the focus is on timber production, that represents the main source of revenue for the forest owners. The aim of this research was to highlight the most important NWFPs from Bihor County. Four categories of NWFPs and nineteen criteria proposed within the FP1203 COST Action European non-wood forest products network were taken into account. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to evaluate the performance of selected alternatives by means of pairwise comparisons. The analyses were performed by using the Expert Choice Desktop software package. The non-wood forest products with the highest potential for Bihor County were the truffles (Tuber spp.) and the pheasant (Phasianus colchicus L.), while the less important ones were the flowers of the black elder (Sambucus nigra L.) and bear’s garlic (Allium ursinum L.). Based on the results of this study, we conclude that Bihor County has a great potential for NWFPs mainly due to its great biodiversity as regards the forest ecosystems