Impact of Collecting Mushrooms From the Spontaneous Flora on Forest Ecosystems in Romania

Mushrooms from spontaneous flora are among the most important non-wood forest products, more than 3000 species being consumed worldwide and more than 100 being of great importance in medicine, fighting against several diseases. In Romania, there is a long tradition of collecting/picking edible mushrooms from the spontaneous flora, but concrete data regarding the impact of mushrooms collecting on forest ecosystems is lacking. For estimating the quantities of edible mushrooms that could be harvest from spontaneous forest flora managed by the National Forest Administration in 2016, the following were taken into account: the reports recently done by the specialists of National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry “Marin Drăcea”-INCDS; the database of INCDS regarding the non-wood forest products; the current forest fund administrated by the National Forest Administration; the information contained in scientific papers or resulted from research projects. The largest amounts of edible mushrooms that are harvested from the Forestry Departments managed by National Forest Administration belong to the following species: Boletus sp., Cantharellus cibarius Fr. (chanterelle) and Armillaria mellea (Vahl) P. Kumm. (honey fungus). The most significant impact of mushrooms collecting occurs in the terrestrial flora and fauna. In order to assure a low impact on environment, the activity of harvesting edible mushrooms will have to respect the principle of sustainable management of forestry resources, i.e. the harvesting should be made so as not to disturb the regenerative capacity and biodiversity especially in the case of endangered species or in fragile ecosystems. If the activity of harvesting edible mushrooms is supervised by the forest authorities who have experience in organizing such activities and in compliance with all the recommendations, there is no possibility of occurrence of situations with negative effects on biodiversity or on the abundance of mushroom species.