Romania's transport projects get greener after WWF proposals

Romania’s future road, navigation and rail transport projects will include WWF’s (World Wide Fund) nature conservation proposals. WWF Romania has influenced the evaluation methods and the recommendations made during the drafting process of the country’s Transport Master Plan by 2030, a process that lasted two years. Infrastructure development is a priority for both Romania and the European Union. A large part of the funds for the following programming period is for transport. “While we agree that Romania needs a “properly developed, modern and sustainable infrastructure,” there are high risks in terms of biodiversity degradation. Habitat fragmentation from transport is a major threat to biological diversity and solving this problem has become an EU concern,” reads a WWF Romania statement. Compared to the rest of Europe, Romania still has a rich heritage of natural habitats, such as those for large carnivores, and rare species such as sturgeons. However, many of the natural areas are in danger of losing significant habitats by fragmentation, due to human intervention. The habitats can only be maintained if land use plans include an obligation to respect connections between ecological habitats identified in national and international networks. The first version of the Transport Master Plan, published in October 2012, did not contain any reference to biodiversity conservation. After various debates, the final environment report included most of WWF’s proposals. Some of the measures contained in the report refer to avoiding adverse impact on all types of protected areas in Romania by reconsidering routes; avoiding impact on sturgeons in navigation projects; recognizing navigation’s impact on Danube’s biodiversity; animal passageways, corridors, tunnels and others. Planning of transport projects will also take into account the time necessary to collect biodiversity scientific data in order to protect species best, as well as the cost of this process. The project also includes measures against deforestation and for maintaining wetlands. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com