Short history
In 1933, through the Journal of the Council of Ministers no. 561 of May 16, 1933, the Institute of Forestry Research and Experimentation (ICEF) is established.
The establishment of ICEF as an independent forestry research institution was preceded by the establishment in 1922, within the State Forestry House, of the Sinaia Forestry Research Station, and starting in 1930 of the Studies and Documentation Office within the Autonomous House of State Forests (CAPS). Marin Drăcea was the first general director of CAPS, starting in 1930, a position he held until 1933, when the Institute of Forestry Research and Experimentation was established.
Since its foundation, the institute’s stated goal has been to contribute to the scientific foundation of the national forestry economy.
During the period when Marin Drăcea went to USA on a scholarship (1927), he played a decisive role in scientific research, otherwise, in 1930 he created three study laboratories, which would later be transformed into Study Offices and which were at the basis for the establishment of the Forestry Research and Experimentation Institute, whose director he was for 12 years (1933-1945).
Marin Drăcea is responsible for the extraordinary course of the institute.
In the initial structure, the institute included 5 research sections, all located in the headquarters, 4 research stations in the country (Sinai Station – 1922, Gurghiu/Mureș Station – 1935, Casa Verde Timișoara Station – 1937, Comorova Station, Dobrogea – 1938) and experimental bases (Comorova Forest 1938, OS Mihăiesti, OS Șigănesti – 1942).
In 1974 it was named the Forest Research and Management Institute (ICAS).
In 1969, the research activities (Institutul de Cercetări și Experimentări Forestiere – I.N.C.E.F.), forest management (Institutul de Studii și Proiectări Forestiere – I.S.P.F.) were integrated into the same institute (Institutul de Cercetări, Studii și Proiectări Silvice – I.C.S.P.S.) and forest documentation (Forest Documentation Center – C.D.F.). In 1990, ICAS enters, according to HG no. 1335/1990 in the structure of the Autonomous Forestry Administration, keeping the 6 experimental forest areas in administration until 2015.
In 2015, ICAS became the “Marin Drăcea” National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry, an institution specialized in research, technological development and sustainable management of forests.
Currently, ICAS has become the “Marin Drăcea” National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry, a legal entity under public law, specialized in scientific research, technological development, the provision of specialized technical consultancy, as well as the implementation of new technologies in order to manage sustainability of forests.
In its 90 years of existence, INCDS has gone through a series of changes (in terms of the name, structure and organization, operation of the headquarters) and has evolved in the direction of maturing, diversifying the issues addressed, as well as structuring the activity and organization in territorial profile.
Currently, INCDS manages over 48,000 ha which, according to Law 51/1991 on Romania’s national security (art. 3 paragraph m), constitutes a strategic objective of national security, respectively a special objective of national interest and carries out integrated research, development and experimentation in its Central and in 9 Territorial Stations without legal personality that include sections, laboratories, workshops, collectives, experimental bases, services, offices, compartments, and other organizational structures necessary to achieve its object of activity.
INCDS has a high-performance, modern research infrastructure, laboratories recognized and intercalibrated at European level, integrated long-term research/monitoring networks, with a complex scientific, technical and cartographic data base.
