IMPEDIMENTS IN IMPLEMENTING LOCAL AGENDA 21 IN ROMANIA: A CASE STUDY OF RAMNICU VALCEA STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

This article identifies and discusses the difficulties the main actors involved in the process of Local Agenda 21 implementation are confronted with in countries in transition as Romania. These are mainly the lack of financial resources, a weak connection of the academic world with the policy-making process, difficulties in adopting a "multistakeholders" strategy and sometimes a weak legal framework. However, specific problems characteristic for a country in transition and reminiscences of the communist regime imprint a special profile to the process of implementation of Local Agenda 21 in Romania. The solution to these problems may reside in the opening of the Romanian society to an external flux of funds and information, as well as in surpassing the weak communist thinking, which has unfortunately been maintained over years. To reach its purpose, the paper analyses the instrument for Local Agenda 21 implementation in a Romanian municipality, Ramnicu Valcea.