National Forest Administration-ROMSILVA Defileul Jiului National Park Administration administers, based on a management contract signed with the National Forest Administration-ROMSILVA, the following protected natural areas :
- Defileul Jiului National Park;
- Natura 2000 Site ROSCI0063 Defileul Jiului;
- Nature Reserve Sfinxul Lainicilor;
- Nature Reserve Stancile Rafaila.
Defileul Jiului National Park and Natura 2000 site – ROSCI0063 Defileul Jiului are located in the western part of the Southern Carpathians between the Vâlcan Mountains – to the west and the Parâng Mountains – to the east and includes “the wildest transverse gorges of the Romanian Carpathians” (Orghidan, 1969) and the adjacent perimeter, from the north of Gorj county and the south of Hunedoara county, between the altitudes of 295 m, in the Luncani / Bumbeşti Jiu area, in the southern extremity and 1,621 m, in the Valcan Pass, in the western extremity, covering a level difference of 1,326 m .
The territory, mostly devoid of localities, is crossed from south to north by the national road 66 Filiaşi – Deva (DN66), which also appears in the European network as E-79, and by the Bumbeşti – Livezeni railway inaugurated in 1948.
Approximately the entire surface of the park (99%) was also declared a site of community importance (Natura 2000).
The management of Defileul Jiului National Park ensures the maintenance of the physical-geographic framework in its natural state, the protection of ecosystems, the conservation of genetic resources and biological diversity in conditions of ecological stability, the prevention and exclusion of any form of exploitation of natural resources and land uses, incompatible with the assigned purpose.
An important resource of the Defileul Jiului National Park and the Natura 2000 site with the same name is cultural diversity and cultural heritage values. First of all, it is about the human communities in the park area with all the elements that define it: traditional activities and architecture, customs, concerns for future existence in the context of globalization.
The national park area includes very important objectives for the cultural map of Romania, among which we mention: the Holy Lainici Monastery, the Holy Vișina Monastery, the former Austro-Hungarian Customs, visible traces of the battles of the First World War (trenches, paths, parts of elements of armament, etc.), stables, imposing constructions built by the Romanian people (Bumbești Jiu – Livezeni railway, viaducts).
On the surface of the national park, the best represented ecosystem is the forest (over 85% of the park surface), followed by the meadows (about 10%).
Stancile Rafaila are a nature reserve that aims to preserve the natural geological elements, represented by the two large blocks of chloritoid shale, made up of a wide range of weakly metamorphosed rocks, pyriphyllite, serucite and muscovite microconglomerate sandstones.
Sfinxul Lainicilor is a natural reserve that aims to preserve the natural element with landscape value represented in this case by the geological formation with the appearance of a sphinx, formed by the modeling of a rock by environmental climatic factors (freeze/thaw/precipitation/wind).