WWF: Romania’s Danube Delta at risk of losing 2,500 hectares to agriculture
<p>Environmental non-governmental organization WWF-Romania (World Wide Fund for Nature) recently warned that the Danube Delta could lose 2,500 hectares to intensive agriculture.</p>
<p>The warning was issued on February 2, World Wetlands Day, and concerns the Carasuhat area in the Danube Delta. This is a region that was partially restored through a European project funded with EUR 2.5 million between 2012 and 2016 and then partially flooded in 2023. </p>
<p>However, a court ruling from December 2024 threatens to impose the drainage of these 2,500 hectares of delta land in the Carasuhat area near Mahmudia and Beștepe.</p>
<p>“The Carasuhat area, which is at risk of being drained again, includes the ecologically reconstructed section from 2012 to 2016, carried out through a European project in which we were partners and which we consider a model for the Delta’s future,” said Orieta Hulea, director of WWF-Romania, cited in the <a href="https://wwf.ro/noutati/carasuhat_ziua_zonelor_umede/">press release</a>. </p>
<p>“The last nine years have proven that investments in nature restoration work can bring prosperity to local communities. Such a model should not be destroyed but preserved and replicated in as many areas of the Danube Delta as possible,” she added.</p>
<p>The local economy relies on fishing and tourism and locals want to keep the flooded area as it is, contrary to the interests of agricultural companies in the region, WWF-Romania states.</p>
<p>To protect the area, WWF Romania launched a petition addressed to the Romanian Government and the Ministry of Environment, Waters, and Forests, signed by nearly 10,000 people, demanding a Government Decision that would prevent the drainage of the Carasuhat region. The organization also asks for compensation for agricultural leaseholders.</p>
<p><em><a href="mailto:radu@romania-insider.com">radu@romania-insider.com</a></em></p>
<p><em>(Photo source: Administratia Rezervatiei Biosferei Delta Dunarii on Facebook)</em></p>