Inter-war botanist Alexandru Borza

Nature has been viewed, in the past two and a half centuries, as the cradle of humankind, of the individual human being, of their families and of the nation. Nature has become a cult of the modern man; therefore, plants, animals, air, water or stones have also become an object of study for naturalists. In Romania, priest Alexandru Borza was one of the most important botanists. He was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1887 and died in Romania in 1971, at the age of 84.  

Borza's educational background was a little bit unusual for a scientist. Borza graduated from a Catholic theological seminary, then he pursued a university program with the Faculty of Sciences in Budapest. At the age of 26, Borza earned his doctoral degree in natural sciences, in 1913. Until 1918, when the Romanian-inhabited territories that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were included in then the Kingdom of Romania, Borza was a teacher of natural sciences with the boys' high-school in Blaj. After 1918, Borza's career became increasingly effervescent. Among other things, Borza was a rector of the University of Cluj, a director of the Cluj Botanical gardens and a scientific director of the Nature Monuments Commission. Alexandru Borza discovered more than 80 species of plants, while other 20 were named in his honor. Alexandru Borza published around 500 texts and an ethnobotanic dictionary of Romania, with 11 common names for 2, 095 species of plants and also supervised the issuing of nine scientific periodicals. Alexandru Borza was involved in strong awareness-raising campaigns regarding the importance of nature in people's lives through the articles he contributed to the printed press, through pamphlets, public or radio-broadcast conferences. Borza also made a leap forward, from the research of nature to the anthropological-folkloric and eugenic research.

The fact that the Romanian specialists participated in the Fourth Botany Congress in New York, in 1926, gave them an impetus in their involvement in the defense of the environment. Here is the historian Cosmin Koszor-Codrea explaining how the American model also inspired the Romanians in their subsequent undertakings:

"In 1926, the 4th International Botanical Congress was held in New York, which gathered botanists from around the world. Borza was also present and delivered a paper on insular flowers in the ecology section. Beside the daily presentation sessions, the daily agenda included visits to the botanical garden, excursions to the natural division of the Yellowstone natural park, Niagara Falls and Rocky Mountains. After he returned to Romania he planned, together with the zoologist Popovici-Dimbosanu the first Romanian National Congress of Naturists, to be held in Cluj, in 1928. Here they gathered, on the same agenda, secondary school teachers, representatives of Hungarian, Romanian, and German alpine associations, officials and living scientists of the period. Amongst their aims there were many resolutions, the participants pushed forward on the political agenda the reorganization of the natural history teaching program in secondary schools, the recognition of the fact that the Danube Delta is an ecological region, a region rich in bird species, and that the Retezat Mountains should become a national park."

The following steps were the logical consequences of the assumed objectives. With details on that, here is Cosmin Koszor-Codrea once again:

"The Ministry of Agriculture and Domains, based on their proposals, enacted in 1930 the Law of the protection of natural monuments. The following year, the Royal Decree officially recognized the existence of the Commission of Natural Monuments. In doing so, the law written by the commission defined the following, QUOTE, the monuments of nature are those lands which, due to the inhabitancy of animals and plants, have a special scientific and aesthetical importance, as well as those which, through their natural beauty, scientific interest, are meaning to be conserved and passed over to posterity. Within the protection law fall also animals and plant species, as well as rocks, minerals and fossils, UNQUOTE.

The history of the Retezat Nature Park, founded in 1935, is proudly linked to the name of Alexandru Borza. There the preservation of nature was taken to its highest, thanks to the involvement of the state and the regulations that were put in place. In 1939, in "The Carpathians" magazine, Borza published a list of 17 protected plant species. Among them, the rhododendron, the Edelweiss and the white Egyptian lotus. Cosmin Koszor-Codrea told us the ecologists focused on the Retezat Massif the right from the start.

"The first region that matched this definition was the Retezat Mountains, due to its unique geological formation, its fauna and flora, as well as the answer it gave to the Romanian national identity. In the words of Borza, QUOTE, The Retezat is, from all points of view, a holy land for science, is a sacred monument of nature that has no comparison to other massifs in Romania. That is why all our naturalists are considering it predestined by nature to become our natural park, the Yellowstone of Romania. Here the young will carry the patriotic education, they will feel in these mountains the air of freedom, that as inherited by the Dacian king Decebalus, while it will feed their hearts with pride by knowing this piece of land as something unique, in its own way, as a symbol of our natural health, UNQUOTE. "

Alexandru Borza was one of the most prominent names of environment protection in inter-war Romania. Borza was also one of the scientists who supported the necessity of Romanians' being taught basic natural history notions as part of the Romanian nation's specific characteristics.