ROMANIAN REVIEW OF REGIONAL STUDIES, Volume VII, Number 1, 2011 CAN RURAL TOURISM BOOST GREEN LIVELIHOODS? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES FROM MARAMURE FRANCESCA REGOLI 1 , MATTEO VITTUARI 2 , ANDREA SEGRÈ 3 ABSTRACT - The European rural policy is shifting from the concept of multifunctionality to the one of public good with a growing attention to environmental concerns and green livelihoods. In Maramure, Romania, this approach is only partially explored: as diversification strategy, several tourist accommodation facilities have been created by rural households, but those services are often not integrated to territorial amenities. Consequently, the rural system is still agriculturally based with a largely unexplored potential considering non-farm activities, a high migration rate, and a consistent land abandonment. The research aims to investigate how tourist initiatives can contribute to the promotion of green livelihoods through the valorization of local assets. Tourism can foster the enhancement of the territorial capital (natural, cultural social, institutional and economic ones), the preservation of public goods in the area (i.e. forests, land management) and the promotion of a more environmental oriented livelihood. A development strategy based on the recognition of the specificity embedded in the territorial capital can move the traditional heritage and local assets back to the core of the policy debate, recognizing their role in the socio-economic and environmental development of the area. Methodologically, the work is based on a cluster analysis carried out trough data collected from a range of rural guesthouses (offering tourist accommodation facilities) and focusing on the concept of public good and on the local strategies adopted to manage and valorize the territorial capital. Collected data served as main tool for the identification of the major challenges that local administration should overcome to identify an effective strategy for local development. Moreover, the cluster analysis has been anticipated by an extensive literature review conducted on the existing policy papers, reports and documents focused on the promotion of sustainable development in rural Romania. Keywords: public goods, territorial capital, rural tourism strategies, Vieu Valley, Maramure INTRODUCTION The debate on the Common Agricultural Policy CAP after 2013 involves the European, national, and regional level. The new policy will include a reform of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 and should address the upcoming challenges and the diversity of the agricultural and rural systems in EU 27. The perspective of the CAP post 2013 focuses on the new economic, social, environmental, climate-related and technological challenges. More in details the emerging questions, the CAP has to face, refer to the introduction of policies that can favor the promotion of a sustainable and inclusive growth (EC Agricultural and Rural Development, 2010). In this framework, some of key issues refer to small agricultural holdings and in particular to their future and the one of their related rural communities; their public and socio-economic utility and their performances, which has to be measured not only in terms of economic competitiveness but considering also their role for the sustainable management of natural resources and land use (Ciolo D., 2010). This shift from a productive to a broader and multidimensional policy focus is underlined also by the strong emphasis on the diversified role of agriculture (i.e. more attention on services) and on the increased share of funding allocated to the second pillar that have been characterizing the CAP in the past decade. Moreover, the European rural policy is shifting always more towards strategic 1 University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering – Faculty of Agriculture, Italy. E-mail: francesca.regoli@unibo.it 2 University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering – Faculty of Agriculture, Italy. 3 University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering – Faculty of Agriculture, Italy.