Only about 20 percent of the former extensive floodplains with high bio-diversity are still left. While the floodplains in Germany and Austria up to the Vienna area are almost completely destroyed, the WWF is seeing downstream of Vienna the possibility to redevelop large areas of floodplains to a habitat for numerous fish and bird species that have become rare.
"Especially down the river there is the chance to reverse disastrous sins committed during the communist regime", stresses the head of the WWF-project, Detlef Günther-Diringer. In the Danube Delta, where the Danube flows into the Black Sea, we find the largest pelican colonies of Europe, but in the border region between Rumania and Bulgaria they have practically disappeared.
17 regions from 1,000 ha to over 50,000 ha, altogether a total of about 150,000 ha, have been selected for redevelopment by the experts in the frame of the Danube-Carpathian-Programme of the WWF. The lower Danube offers vast possibilities: "Since almost all drained surfaces have not been settled and are mostly used for agriculture, the opening of dams would be relatively easy. Thus, nature would recover more than 400,000 ha", explains Günther-Diringer. Joachim Bendow, head of the Danube Pollution Reduction Programme with the UNDP/GEF, adds: "For international organisations like the Global Environmental Facility these projects are particularly worth being supported. Agricultural restructuring in the former socialist countries offers extraordinary possibilities for restoring floodplain forests."
A team of experts from the Danube basin used the most advanced technologies to develop this vast area comprising 13 nations. The geo-information systems (GIS) were used for analysing satellite pictures and for comparing them with historical maps. A huge amount of data on present land use, selected animal and plant species and the flow regime of rivers were analysed. ”Although it was extremely difficult to gather data in some of the countries, it was for the first time possible to ecologically evaluate a large river basin in a transnational way”, says Günther-Diringer. The present study is a unique basis for further nature protection work in the catchment of the second-largest European river.
(Source: aqua press Int. 05/99)
Information & Contact:
WWF-Auen-Institut
Josefstr. 1
D-76437 Rastatt
Phone +49 7222 3807-14
Fax ext. 99
or
Joachim Bendow, UNDP/GEF
Phone +43 1 26060-5610
