WWF: Romania’s Danube Delta at risk of losing 2,500 hectares to agriculture

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.

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.

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.

“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 press release.

“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.

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.

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.

(Photo source: Administratia Rezervatiei Biosferei Delta Dunarii on Facebook)