Danube Delta

The Danube Delta is well known as one of Europe's premier wetlands and the Danube Delta Special Protection Area (SPA) is home to over 320 bird species. These include threatened species such as the dalmatian pelican and red-breasted goose.

Since Romania joined the EU in 2007, the precious Delta has been coming under increasing pressure from development – infrastructure projects, such as road upgrades, tourist complexes and badly-sited windfarms as well as unregulated hunting, fishing and tourism activities.

Unfortunately, the Romanian authorities are not adequately implementing the provisions of the EU nature Directives on site protection. This means that they cannot ensure that the habitats of the delta do not deteriorate, that bird species are not disturbed and that the planning of projects, which may affect the Delta SPA, follow proper procedures. Under the nature Directives, such projects should only proceed if they will not damage the site's integrity and if the proper procedures have been followed.

Development, roads, hunting, wind farms...

Badly controlled economic development and unregulated tourism, hunting, fishing and forestry activities have already reduced the areas of habitats and disturbed species protected by the Birds and Habitats Directives. For example, various species of waders such as collared pratincoles, stone-curlews and Kentish plovers, as well as other species of birds including, gull-billed terns, marsh harriers and Montagu’s harriers have been and continue to be affected in the Chituc and Sulina areas of the Natura 2000 site.

Projects currently of concern in the Delta include proposals by the Romanian Authorities to carry out works including road widening, the construction of tourist complexes in the Chituc Levee, Sulina and Sf. Gheorghe areas. These are areas with coastal sand dunes (a priority habitat protected under the Habitats Directive) and which are important for wintering and migrating birds. On the Chituc Levee over 250,000 birds, especially wildfowl, have been observed in a single day.

A proposed tourist development, which could cover a site of 1,200 hectares along 11.5 km of coastline close to Chituc Levee and sand extraction alongside unauthorised tourist development at Sulina beach in the southern part of the Delta add to the pressure. Additional risks include wind farm proposals located in potentially damaging locations.

Why is this site worth fighting for?

The Danube Delta is the second largest delta in Europe and one of the biggest in the world. It is the only delta in the world entirely declared (in 1990) as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

Designated as a Ramsar site in 1990, it has the biggest area of compact reed beds on the planet. In the European Union it is designated as both a Special Protection Area (SPA) and a proposed Site of Community Importance (pSCI).

With 30 types of ecosystems and 5,300 flora and fauna species, the Danube Delta is a natural genetic bank with inestimable value for our global natural heritage (a fact which has been recognized by its inclusion in the World Heritage List under the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention).

The Razim-Sinoie lagoon complex is the part of the SPA/pSCI and the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DDBR) is the largest lagoon area in Romania covering 101,500 ha. This area is isolated from the Black Sea by beach ridges (levees) that divide the former lagoon into a mosaic of lakes and wetlands.

Over 320 bird species have been identified in the SPA/pSCI, 97 of which are listed in Annex I of Birds Directive, 151 under the Bonn Convention on migratory species and 17 are globally threatened species. The Danube Delta Natura 2000 site is important for hundreds of thousands of birds. During the migration period, about 130,000 to 250,000 birds can be seen each day, especially geese, ducks, gulls and waders.

Globally threatened species include: lesser white-fronted goose, imperial eagle, greater spotted eagle, ferruginous duck, red-breasted goose, pallid harrier, roller, saker falcon, lesser kestrel, red-footed falcon, great snipe, Mediterranean gull, slender-billed curlew, white-headed duck, Dalmatian pelican and Balearic shearwater.

Our position

To avoid further damage we are urging the European Commission to investigate the situation as a matter of urgency and to take appropriate action to ensure that Romania adequately implements the requirements of the Birds and Habitats Directives including Article 6 of the Habitats Directive on site protection.

Since 2006, we have been supporting the post of Danube Delta Casework Officer at SOR, the Romanian BirdLife Partner. This role is critical in working with local people and those that influence what happens in the Danube Delta.

Through this work, we are able to influence plans for conservation and development activities that are compatible with the high natural value of the site. Monitoring potentially harmful developments and campaigning to stop them is another important part of the job.

In May 2008, we helped SOR prepare an online petition to raise the profile of the Chituc Levee road project and in September 2008 visited the European Commission with SOR to discuss the situation in the Delta. 

Thanks to the work of SOR and other Romanian NGOs the project is now on hold, however, a large number of other projects including wind farms continue to come forward. Following an official complaint by SOR, the Commission wrote a first warning to Romania over lack of protection of the Delta from a tourist development on sand dunes at Sulina in May 2010. Further complaints by SOR, backed by the RSPB are likely to follow.

The understanding of legal requirements for planning projects affecting Natura 2000 sites is currently very low in the Romanian Authorities, consequently in June 2009, with the support of RSPB, SOR organised a wind energy working group and ran training on appropriate assessment for a group of stakeholders including consultants and civil servants.

Timeline

• 2006

  We start supporting the Danube Delta Casework Officer post at SOR, the Romanian Birdlife Partner

• October 2007

  European Commission open legal proceedings and send Romania a first warning (Letter of Formal Notice) for its failure to properly designate Special Protection Areas (SPA) - of 130 Important Bird Areas originally proposed for SPA designation, 21 are totally excluded and 71 only partially designated

• May 2008

  We help SOR prepare an online petition to raise the profile of the Chituc Levee road project

• September 2008

  Along with SOR, we visit the European Commission to discuss the situation in the Delta

• September 2008

  European Commission send Romania a second warning (Reasoned Opinion) in relation to the inadequate Special Protection Area designation

• October 2008

  Following objections by BSPB, a 39 turbine windfarm proposal near Bestepe, adjacent to the Danube Delta, is rejected by the Romanian authorities. The windfarm would have threatened wintering geese and migrating raptors, storks and pelicans , whose populations are protected by the Danube Delta Special Protection Area

• June 2009

  With our support, SOR organize a wind energy working group and run training on appropriate assessment for a group of stakeholders including consultants and civil servants

• October 2009

  European Commission refer the site designation infringment to the European Court of Justice

• November 2009

  The Romanian Senate rejects a draft law that would have brought protection of the Danube Delta in line with European Directives. SOR continue to campaign to get this vital piece of legislation passed

• May 2010

  The European Commission send a first written warning to Romania (Letter of Formal Notice) over the damaging tourism development at Sulina on the Black Sea coast of the Danube Delta, following a complaint by SOR. The development is destroying irreplaceable priority dune habitats