As a country, Romania tries to communicate abroad its authenticity, intact nature and unique cultural heritage. This message matches perfectly the main attributes associated to Rodna Mountains National Park, as it is the second national park in Romanian. The aim of the research is to identify and analyze the prospects for sustainable development of rural tourism in the area of Rodna Mountains National Park, taking into account its impact on the social and economic life of the inhabitants of the Rodna commune, but also factors that may positively or negatively influence the whole process. From a methodological perspective, quantitative methods were used; a survey-based research was carried out among Romanian mountain tourists, aiming at identifying and analyzing their opinions and suggestions regarding tourism in protected areas in Romania, as well as the impact of the tourist flows generated by the Park upon the surrounding communities. Rodna Mountains National Park seems to be among the favorite destinations of tourists, as the respondents have a good and very good general impression about the interaction with the mountain and protected areas, prefer internal to external destinations regardless of the season, budgets allocated per night, per stay and annually are quite high, so the purchasing power is also high; they constitute a solid foundation for the decisions of the tourist development of the area. The need for holidays and the savings that tourists make throughout the year to go on vacation, regardless of income level, give viability to this opportunity. Other results of this research are related to the problems tourists helped to identify and the solutions they proposed.

The aim of this study is to present the trends and effectiveness of money laundering countermeasures from the perspective of a number of suspicious transactions reported to the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), a number of analysis results submitted to law enforcement authorities, and the typologies of cases in European Union Member States. In order to determine the impact of the joint effort in the fight against money laundering, we used descriptive statistics to process the data and case studies from annual reports of the European FIUs for 2018 and 2019. The results of our study highlight the increase in the number of suspicious transactions notices, as well as in their quality level. There is an increasing tendency towards information exchange between European Union countries regarding the suspicion of money laundering, but there is no stable trend for referring cases to law enforcement and other responsible institutions. Based on the available data, it can be concluded that the EU anti money laundering measures are efficient, but further steps are needed to achieve higher international coordination and cooperation.

This study aims to reveal the connection between corruption and shadow economy, on one hand, and deforestation, on the other. The research considers 131 countries from all over the world, in the timeframe between the years 2012 and 2020, and it reveals that corruption and shadow economy positively influence deforestation. Determinants like democratic governance quality, press freedom, wood export share, and culture are also key factors in implementing the right, efficient countermeasures aimed at reducing the levels of illegal deforestation and sustainably managing the forestland. The importance of this study is to provide a solid quantitative basis to decision-makers that come across this problem of illegal logging through a better, fact-based understanding of the phenomenon.

Wood is one of the most important natural resources, used in construction and fencing, art (artworks and musical instruments), household uses (utensils and hand tools), wooden toys, furniture, shipbuilding, fuel, and stationary. Therefore, deforestation is an indispensable process to our society. However, deforestation does not have to mean smaller forestland, as it should be accompanied by afforestation. But this does not happen, partially due to illegal deforestation, that raises the deforestation level much higher than the sustainable one, and partially due to laws that permit legal deforestation to be above the durable limit, obviously for economic and political reasons The aim of this paper is to study the differences in the influence that economic and financial crimes (corruption, shadow economy, and money laundering) have on the rate of deforestation in developing versus developed countries. Recent data (from 2012 to 2020) is used for 185 countries from all over the world, in order to obtain updated and relevant results. The practical use of the findings is given by their relevance in finding efficient, adapted, and effective solutions for unsustainable deforestation (legal or not), for pollution, and for a cleaner air and environment, and for a better understanding of this phenomenon, by addressing it differently according to the level of development of a country. Also, this research is an attempt to raise awareness upon illegal deforestation and corruption. The regressions applied to the database show that both developed and developing countries present a direct connection between economic and financial crime and the level of deforestation, but in developed countries the influence of economic and financial crime on deforestation is lower. Therefore, the focus in reducing the deforestation by reducing the economic and financial crimes rate should be on developing countries, where the levels of corruption, shadow economy, and money-laundering are higher, and so is the deforestation rate.

This paper continues previous researches dedicated to highlighting the importance of planning from a managerial point of view and to discussing the regional dimension of planning, to which it adds up the current topic, that of rural tourism planning – features, particularities, approaches, multi-functionality of land use, collaboration and partnerships, negative planning, green economy, and case-studies. Bearing the theory in mind, a radiography of Rodna commune was briefly made, taking into consideration the following aspects: economy, locals, tourist flows, accommodation, tourists’ profile, food services, accessibility and transportation, travel agents, attractions and heritage, types of tourism, IT & C, sustainability, and traditions. The reason for the description of the commune is to properly understand the context and the particularities of the analyzed destination. Further, the steps of regional planning are revealed, and each of them is separately discussed and analyzed, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. The outcome is a strategy the community can adopt, with a vision, three directions, and several SMART objectives. This strategy is reflected in a document that aims to engage each stakeholder in the process, as well as to establish in a clear, comprehensive way the common framework. Also, there are several proposals for every community and destination that understands the importance of planning and its implications: collaboration, win-win approach, partnerships, the involvement of the community, sustainability in every dimension, and so on. JEL Classification: L83, Q01, Z32.