D A N U B E
In other Danube-related news, the Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin, an international program that brings the Danube countries together to harmonize environmental legislation and coordinate clean-up, held its ninth Task Force Meeting on 11-12 March 1996, in Sofia. Task force members presented their activities to the group. Government officials furnished details of their national action plans for 1996. Representatives from development banks, aid agencies (including the REC), municipalities, NGO networks and others also presented their accomplishments. The various sub-groups of the program, including the Accident and Emergency Warning System (AEWS) and the Monitoring, Laboratory and Information Management Network were also present.
A good deal of discussion revolved around the implementation of the Danube River Protection Convention (DRPC). The DRPC will eventually replace the Danube Environment Programme as the body responsible for Danube protection activities, "but some of the components of the Programme don't appear to be compatible with the convention" that will replace it, says Robert Atkinson, task force member and REC outreach officer. "This includes public participation activities and NGO support."
NGO members presented a report on their activities and voiced their views on the programme. Their report highlighted the establishment of NGO information centers in both the upper and lower Danube basin, as well as the recent activities of the Danube Environmental Forum (DEF). The DEF is a network of nongovernmental organizations from ten CEE countries that operate within the Danube River basin.
The NGO report included six resolutions that ranged from the involvement of NGOs in the new Danube Convention to the participation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia in the Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin and concern over the recent changes to the Bulgarian Environmental Protection Act. DEF also expressed some concern over funding constraints within the Danube Grants Programme, and subsequently asked for a 250 percent increase.
Participants praised the GA as a place for sharing experiences and ideas about projects. "It's encouraging to see the increased cooperation and complexity of projects that involve NGOs from different countries," says the REC's Atkinson. "Many of these NGOs work on the same watershed from different sides of the border. And it's reassuring to see the positive impact the Danube Grants Programme is having on NGO activity."
In Central and Eastern Europe, WWF cooperates with governments and NGOs to protect the Danube River all the way to the delta, where it empties into the Black Sea.
WWF worked with the rehabilitation group of the Delta Institute, in Romania, to restore lost wetland habitat on Babin Island in the Danube Delta. WWF also assisted the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority with protection activities and sustainable-use management in the Delta. In Bulgaria, WWF is working with the Ministry of Environment and the Committee of Forests to prepare an ecological forest management plan for the Danube Bulgarian Islands that would preserve important floodplain forests while generating economic benefits. WWF Hungary is generating national and international support for a development plan it prepared to establish a national park in and around the Gemenc Nature Protection Area, where white-tailed eagles, black storks and numerous fish species depend on important forest wetlands for their survival. In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, WWF and various partner NGOs promote transfrontier protection for a large and relatively undisturbed area of floodplain forest in the Central Danube Multilateral Park.