Flora

More than 1/3 of Romanian flora can be found in the Retezat Mountains.
High meadows create a haven for rare alpine flora. In the mountain area, long, steep slopes are covered with different types of forest, especially beech, spruce and fir, with birch and rowen as pioneer species. At the sub-alpine level, slopes shaped by ice are often protected by dwarf pine. The forest line reaches 1900 m with some Spruce adapted to the harsh climate. Arola pine (Pinus cembra) in the dwarf pine cover offer shelter and food to birds. Some areas are covered with Rhododendron kotschy, and Alnus viridis can be found. The higher peaks of the alpine level are covered in scree and stones. The rich alpine flora was the main reason for designating Retezat as a national park. Some of the species are quite rare e.g. pink (Dianthus glacialis), endemic whitlow-grass (Draba dornerii), louse wort (Pedicularis exaltata), bird’s eye primrose (Primula minima), milk-wetch (Astragalus australis), alpine fleabane (Erigeron acer) , wormwood (Artemisia campestris), black vanille orchid (Nigritella rubra). Retezat National Park is a genetic center for two important mountain plant genus: Hieracium and Poa.

Fauna

Hikers will find that they share trails with many animals, including chamois, red and roe deer, wild boar, bear, wolf, and fox, and may come across lynx tracks. Otters find good “homes” and “restaurants” in the park’s rivers. Chaffinch, song thrush, ring ouzel, red-breasted flycatcher, chiffchaff, nutcracker and the rare golden eagle, leaser spotted eagle, eagle owl, pigmy owl, crag martin, scarlet rosefinch, three toed woodpecker, horned lark are among the 120 nesting bird species of Retezat. Because of this Retezat National Park was included in the Important Bird Areas Network.
Butterflies are very abundant in Retezat, in number and species, and specialists designed two Prime Butterfly Areas in Retezat National Park.

Flagship species: Golden Eagle, Brown Bear, Wolf, Lynx

Retezat National Park was certified in 2004. The park proved excellence in wilderness protection and showed great achievements in the below fields.*


Habitat management:
• PAN Parks core/wilderness zone was created [14,215 hectares]
• grazing Study on Retezat NP pastures was conducted

Synergy between conservation of natural values and sustainable tourism:
• visitor monitoring was started and information for the public was put in place
• garbage has been removed from Bucura lake
• communication strategy was better formulated
• monitoring of visitors and their impact [alpine trails] was conducted
• draft Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy was prepared
• local PAN Parks quality standard was developed and verification of local partners started
• Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy was finalised and adopted
• signposting and interpretation in the National Park was standardised and unified
• 8 local PAN Parks business partners were verified

*It is not easy to separate activities of regular park management and activities accomplished because of PAN Parks requirements. The list of the above activities includes mostly activities accomplished as a result of the PAN Parks process.