Dear Friends, Partners and everybody else interested in Danube Delta,
we are pleased to send you today the third info-letter of the "Landscape of the Year 2007-2009" with reports and news regarding the LoY activities during the second half of this year.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!
Silviu Covaliov, Nature Friends Tulcea
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Stefanie Röder (International Friends of Nature),
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; tel .0043 1 8923877
Tiberiu Tioc (Nature Friends Romania)
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1. Natura Trail Sf Gheorghe
2. Tour d’Horizon – opening ways to gentle cross-border travel
3. Info-tour Danube Delta
4. Follow-up seminar on the sustainable and innovative use of reed
5. International Seminars on the development of sustainable tourism in the Danube Delta
6. Nature guide training completed with German language course
7. Pension administrator training course in Crisan
8. The Danube Delta present in Leipzig and Brussels
9. IFN Photo championship 2008: award ceremony and exhibition in Vienna
10. What’s coming up?
1. Natura Trail Sf Gheorghe
The first Romanian Natura Trail is going to be established at Sf. Gheorghe, in the Danube Delta, a project that Nature friends realise in cooperation with Sf Gheorghe School’s Ecological Club, the Biosphere Reserve Administration and the Danube Delta Institute.
The Natura trail forms part of a growing European network of so far 29 Natura Trails, initiated and built up by International Friends of Nature. Natura trails are designed to give visitors a living experience of biological diversity and to make them aware of the nature around them, thus supporting also a gentle form of tourism. Focusing on Natura 2000 sites, the Natura Trail network communicates the positive aspects of EU nature legislation also to local people.
Sf. Gheorghe is situated where the oldest of the three Danube branches meets the Black Sea, in a unique landscape of swamps, river banks, and sand dunes. It is the home of a diverse flora and fauna including many protected species like the Dalmatian Pelican, the Sturgeon or the European pond terrapin.
As a first step, LoY coordinator Stefanie Röder and IFN expert Andrea Lichtenecker worked on the contents of the Natura Trail together with a group of 13 children aged 9 to 14 and their teacher and head of school, Adnana Mihaela Pãtrãscoiu. This experience was intensified by walking the trail together with experts from the Danube Delta National Institute. A short video and posters informed abut these activities at the ARBDD ceremony on Danube Day, June 29.
In January a leaflet will be printed in Romanian and English to provide information to both tourists and local people. Further ideas include guided tours along the Natura Trail and the training of the children as nature guides, who show the natural characteristics of their region to other children, also those who come as tourists.
The trail will be officially inaugurated in spring, when the tourism season starts.
2. Tour d’horizon 2008 – opening ways for gentle cross-border-tourism
With the Tour d’horizon, Friends of Nature intend to develop a model for gentle cross-border travel in every Landscape of the Year. Following this concept, three Tours d’horizon were organised during June and September in the Danube Delta, including excursions in both the Romanian and the Ukrainian part.
The unique landscape of the delta was the main focus of the journey – the vast expanse of water and reed with its impressive biodiversity. Even ornithological inexperienced participants didn’t get tired of watching the elegantly gliding pelicans or observing the pied avocets, the herons and the glossy ibis hunting for fish at the waterside.
Apart from the unforgettable natural impressions, the journey was also meant to provide insight into the regions history and culture – in the footsteps of Greeks and Romans and many other nations who have formed the region for a briefer or longer period, and who’s descendants still live as minorities in the delta.
But as well insight into the every day life of local people nowadays, which was possible by staying in fisher pensions and spending several days in the same village, Crisan.
A challenge for everybody’s patience was the border between Romania and the Ukraine that is still difficult for travellers to pass, especially when choosing the troublesome way by land, which is currently the common one, as there is no regular ferry to use the waterway. But the Tour d’horizon aims also at leaving behind borders in people’s minds: A journey into the Danube Delta gains a lot of interesting impressions by including the Ukrainian part, all participants affirmed, and the Tour d’horizon wanted to show this exemplary.
The especially sensitive delta region needs adjusted tourism infrastructure and not destructive major projects. In this spirit the participants of the Tour d’horizon regard themselves as ambassadors and pioneers for a sound tourism with respect for nature, environment and people across borders.
As the Tour d’horizon is thought as a model, Friends of Nature appeal to stakeholders of tourism and nature conservancy for developing and promoting similar permanent cross-border tour offers, creating a win-win situation for both the Romanian and Ukrainian side.
To achieve this, it would be necessary to strengthen the already existing cross-border co-operation in politics, administration and tourism. NGOs like Nature Friends, which deal with nature interpretation, might be helpful partners, e.g. to sensitise local people for the requirements of tourists who travel aside of the mass tourism. Three successful Tours d’horizon have shown that it is worth working on it.
3. Info-Tour Danube Delta
In the framework of the cross-border project “Danube Delta in Europe”, coordinated by the Tulcea County Council, Nature Friends Romania organised an info-trip for journalists and tour-operators during the last week of August. The participants came from all over Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Sweden, etc).
The tour presented the Danube Delta region from both the ecological and cultural point of view and managed to raise awareness for the manifold values of this area. The route followed the middle branch of the Danube, Sulina, with visits to the part north of this branch and to Letea Forest, Crisan etc.
Even though the main focus was on nature, the organisers wanted to emphasize also the cultural and heritage and social aspects as well as the good cooperation between local communities and tour-operators. To give an example, the excursions with small boats were all made in cooperation with local people. Some of them, who participated in the guide course organised by the Nature Friends Romania during the last year, had now the opportunity to use what they had learned, giving helpful hints and information to the visitors. They have now taken an active role in the development of sustainable tourism in the area.
The feedback of the tour’s participants showed that they appreciated very much this approach, which was also expressed in the articles published in international newspapers and by the fact that the participating tour-operators included Danube Delta in their eco-tourism programs.
Congratulations and thanks to the Tulcea County Council for this initiative to promote the Danube Delta at the international level, and special thanks to the local people who help to maintain and to show the uniqueness of the Danube Delta!
4. Follow-up seminar on the sustainable and innovative use of reed
On September 19, a seminar on the "Chances for the sustainable and innovative use of reed in the Danube Delta" took place within Danube Delta National Institute’s yearly International Deltas and Wetlands Symposium in Tulcea.
The issue was not new, but has been actively developed within LoY, especially through an experts meeting at the Lake Neusiedl (Austria), in which participated Romanian and Austrian reed experts, entrepreneurs and researchers. The follow-up seminar, attended by almost 40 participants, was held to launch the issue in the Danube Delta.
As an introduction, Mihai Doroftei, head of vegetal natural resources evaluation research studies of DDNI, presented both the Danube Delta’s reed potential in terms of harvesting the reed for different purposes and the big ecological problem of areas, where the reed was not harvested during more than three years.
As the reed with export quality represents only 10% of the delta’s potential, 90% of the reed beds, which are not harvested, accumulate year by year organic matter (dead reed stems and leaves), which gets fermented and causes reed rhizome destruction, a process known as the “reed die-back”. What follows is a gradual silting process with willows taking over the arena.
Danube delta was declared Biosphere Reserve for its unique flora, fauna and marsh habitats which are based on the biggest compact reed surface of the world – around 170.000 hectares. Loosing this habitat would lead to the loss of its specific flora and fauna.
So, the challenge consists in harvesting and using the reed disregarded by the exporting companies - e.g. for the production of high quality construction boards.
Silviu Covaliov, local LoY coordinator and DDNI researcher, presented successful Austrian examples, from highly insulating construction boards to ecological houses, which could be introduced in the Danube Delta architecture. He proposed to form a working group to prepare an application for the Romanian National Program for Innovation. The idea would be to build some exemplar ecological houses, based on innovative reed elements, e. g. some of the new Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Information Centres, thus serving as models for both visitors and local people.
The discussion revealed objections that had already been identified during the meeting in Neusiedl: The use of reed in house construction is considered a synonym for poverty and financial incapacity to buy standard materials; the durability of innovative reed materials was doubted and – from an ecological point of view - the overexploitation of the reed resource and an irreversible human impact on the delta’s fragile ecosystems was feared.
Whereas this last argument could be clearly disproved by present botanical and ecological experts, it will probably take time, practical examples and experience to overcome the other doubts and prejudices.
The over-all conclusion, however, was positive, resuming three essential plus factors of the proposed reed management and processing:
• an ecological one, improving the habitats and water quality,
• an economical one, because it offers a cheap and good alternative to the common construction materials and the chance of a local non-pollutant industry
• and a social one, because local population would have a good and cheap alternative, using local products that fit in the traditional architecture and at the same time offer a better, advanced life style standard. And jobs in the reed processing could be a completion or alternative to other activities
Thus, a future project proposal might be both a good initiative for the conservation of the reed bed ecosystems and a viable alternative to the current house building practice.
5. International seminars on sustainable Tourism in Danube Delta
Various seminars on the development of sustainable tourism in Danube delta took place in Tulcea during the first week of October:
“Traffic & mobility management in the tourism destination Danube Delta” was the subject of a seminar on October 2, organised by International and Romanian Friends of Nature, with direct links to another one under the title “Sustainable tourism in wetlands and coastal areas” which took place on October 3, organised by Tulcea County Council. Both events were officially registered activities of the Open Days 2008 - European Week of Regions and Cities. “Adapting the tourism offers in the Danube Delta to the European standard and demand of eco-tourism” was the issue of an experts seminar on October 8 within the cross-border-project “Danube delta in Europe”, managed by TCC.
Target groups for all seminars were stakeholders, decision makers and NGOs at national, regional and local level.
The seminar "Traffic and mobility management in the tourist destination Danube Delta" was supposed to launch a debate on the future of tourism mobility in the Danube Delta and to discuss the interdependence between tourism development, respective service needs and the protection of landscape and biodiversity.
Tourism creates traffic and mobility depends on infrastructure. What type of development is desirable and possible in the Danube Delta? How can this be achieved? The objective was to raise awareness on different options and consequences of the traffic development and the importance of an appropriate mobility management as part of a sustainable tourism strategy.
Experts presented best practise examples and experiences from different European regions, such as the Austrian - Hungarian cooperation at the Lake Neusiedl, the Alpine locality of Werfenweng or guiding instruments as the Austrian ‘klima:aktiv mobil’ campaign. Besides, IFN secretary general Christian Baumgartner presented an opportunity for the Danube delta region to get active: an EU project initiative for the development of gentle mobility in tourism along the Danube River envisaged by the Austrian Ministry of Environment and still open to Romanian partners.
The debate centred on the questions:
• Which is (the envisaged) authentic profile of the Danube Delta as a tourism destination and which would be the responding (gentle) mobility concept?
• How to handle and channel growing tourist numbers, envisaged by improving the transport infrastructure such as the regional airport? (key words: “speed up”/ “slow down” measures and effects)
• How to revitalize a regular boat traffic between Romania and Ukraine as a basis for cross-border tourism?
The discussion revealed different attitudes and approaches towards the tourism development and the respective needs of transport services, but also proposals to achieve win-win situations and a mobility model to ensure a sustainable tourism in the region.
One issue was the promotion of Tulcea airport for tourism by introducing low cost flights. Here, the challenge would be to combine the quicker access with “slow-down” elements to make tourists stay longer in the region. Because in sustainable tourism, time is a filter.
“Time is money. The more time a tourist stays the more money remains in the region with benefits for both the local economy and nature conservation”, Alois Lang, expert from the National Park Neusiedlersee, pointed out. In Austria, combined accommodation and transport packages, based on public-private partnerships, take this into account, but still Romania is lacking a legal base for that.
Another aspect to take in consideration when talking about “easy access” is the ecological carrying capacity of the area. In this context everybody agreed that the access of high speed boats should be restricted. After all, the Danube Delta’s uniqueness could only be experienced by a slow approach.
The most essentials conclusions were:
• Initiatives to improve the accessibility and the mobility must take in account the delta’s - and its visitors’ – profile.
• Private and public stakeholders should cooperate in mobility management, even though legal gaps are still a barrier to public-private partnerships.
• Good practice examples can only be adopted if local stakeholders opt for a sustainable tourism development.
These conclusions were presented during the seminar on “Sustainable tourism in wetlands and coastal areas”, that had an even more comprehensive approach.
Main inputs of this seminar were the European point of view, given by Silvia Adriana Ticau, MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament Commission of Transport and Tourism, and the Strategic plan for the sustainable tourism development in the Danube Delta - result of the project Development of the potential for sustainable tourism in a Natura 2000 wetland area: the Danube Delta case, a project between the Belgian consulting WES, Tulcea County Council and the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority. The seminar concluded with an interim balance of the LoY eco-tourism activities in the Danube Delta.
Adriana Ticau appealed for using the competences given to the regions with regard to the development of tourism in order to make Danube Delta an European destination of excellence, especially:
• to use European funds for training courses on human resources
• to create partnerships between the main local, regional and national institutions
• to diversify the tourism services and offers, e.g. combining nature, culture, beach and sport
• to improve the transport for tourists, also for those with disabilities
In fact, sustainable tourism is not a new issue in the Danube Delta region, as was illustrated by Diana Bota, researcher from Danube Delta National Institute. Since the early nineties a lot of experience has been gathered through many projects, measures and efforts - always taking in account the special conditions of a protected area that is now part of the European Natura 2000 network.
Thus, the results and suggestions of the Strategic plan for the sustainable development of the tourism in the Danube Delta, presented by WES senior consultant Katrien Bauters, were no surprise for those dealing with the issue. In fact, the plan - based on an analysis of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats - recommends steps and measures to promote and manage the already ongoing process:
• to strengthen the institutional capacity of the public and private sector in the field of sustainable tourism, by knowledge transfer and trainings
• to develop with all stakeholders a tourism strategy for the Danube Delta
• to raise local awareness of tourism development in a Natura 2000 area
Referring to the region’s rich natural, cultural and historic heritage, the concluding recommendation for tourism offers is – once again - to experience the delta in a slow way.”
How participation and cooperation generate satisfying results for different needs was demonstrated by the example of the Ijzer & Handzame Valley, a wetland area in Flanders.
The concluding presentation of LoY coordinators Silviu Covaliov, Stefanie Röder and Tiberiu Tioc intended to show how the suggestions and recommendations mentioned before can be brought from the paper to the practice:
Knowledge transfer for stakeholders, a training course for nature guides, a cross-border model tour, the promotion of certified quality standards by seminars on the EU Eco-label and a pension administrators training course, among others.
All these LoY activities follow the idea of an interactive approach at all levels, involving different target groups. They are first steps, supposed to give an impetus to be taken up by local institutions and organizations, most of which are represented in the LoY project group. Thus, once again, the essential message was: “Cooperation is the key”.
And the prospect is good: The strategic plan for the sustainable development of the tourism is expected to be implemented starting next year.
6. Nature Guide training completed with a German course
In continuation of the Nature Guide course, organised by Nature friends and the Romanian Association of Eco-tourism (AER) from April 2007 to April 2008, participants had the opportunity to join a German language course in Tulcea. The intensive course – ten hours per week during three months - started in October and will finish at the midst of January.
The course is financed by private sponsors and organised by LoY coordinator Tiberiu Tioc, who knows from his experience as guide and tour operator that – after English - German is the most frequent language among the delta’s foreign visitors:
“There are many groups from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, among them often elder people who don’t speak English so well or at all. Most of them really want to learn about the delta’s nature and culture, but they feel much more comfortable in their own language and ask explicitly for German speaking guides – who are hardly to find.”
Thus, the German course is a chance for the new nature guides - but also a challenge: From 20 beginners only the half still keep to it. “But these are highly motivated. They will know sufficient German at the end of the course to guide groups”, assures Tiberiu Tioc (who speaks German perfectly). So, good luck - viel Erfolg!
7. Pension administrator training course in Crisan
Also in October started a training for pension administrators in Crisan. The officially certified course consists of a series of modules, each of them with a special focus. In total 720 hours of theoretical and practical lessons will be imparted. After a successful final examination, participants will have an officially recognized qualification, an important step for the private accommodation owners towards a certified quality standard.
The course is sponsored and organised by gtz Romania in cooperation with Nature friends and the Consulting Group, a recognized institute for business and vocational training. Participants had to pay only a small fee, so that the 22 places were quickly occupied and much more names put on a waiting list.
The introduction session was followed by a first module about environmental aspects and the EU eco-label. The course, which is scheduled until the end of April, is supposed to promote certified quality standards, to create benefits for local people and to get them actively involved in the development of sustainable tourism in the delta.
8. The Danube Delta in Leipzig ...
On October 27 – 29, the Euregia Congress, an international trade fair and congress with the focus on regional development, took place in Leipzig (Germany). Invited by GTZ Romania (German Society for Technical Cooperation), the Romanian Nature Friends had the opportunity to present the activities of the “Danube Delta - Landscape of the Year 2007-2009“ initiative, to share experience with other projects and to make contacts across Europe.
The key topics were:
• Strengthening European territorial cooperation,
• Improving regional competition and raising employment in urban-rural regions,
• New forms of financing for urban and regional development.
GTZ presented their projects in different countries, disposing each country of a corner to offer specific products and information material. The Danube Delta was invited by Gtz Romania, an active partner within the LoY initiative, and promoted by information material of Friends of Nature and the Tulcea County Council. Once again, the LoY partnership proved its worth.
LoY also presented two activities at the “Co-operation Exchange Market”, a workshop themed "Successful through joint projects in rural areas - Opportunities of European cooperation”: one on waste management - the environmental education project in Sf. Gheorghe “Waste in water hurts our health” - and one on the sustainable use of natural resources – the workshop held in Tulcea regarding the chances for sustainable and innovative use of reed in the Danube Delta.
This event was attended by representatives from 24 countries. As a result, several interesting contacts were made, e.g. with companies from Switzerland in the fields of waste management and sustainable use of natural resources. Maybe the beginning of a fruitful dialog and – why not? – of some future cooperation.
….and Brussels
On December 2-3, the European parliament’s social democratic and liberal group organised an event in Brussels to raise awareness of the Danube delta’s uniqueness in Europe.
The opening of a photo exhibition in the Parliament foyer was the cultural prelude for two panel discussions about the scientific importance of the Danube Delta and about strategies for its sustainable development.
EU Commissioner Joe Borg attended the opening. Speakers at the panel discussions were MEPs, Liviu Mihaiu, governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, scientists from the Danube Delta National Institute and Christian Baumgartner, secretary general of the International Friends of Nature, for the initiative Danube Delta - Landscape of the Year.
The event concluded with the signing of a resolution, in which the participants call on the European Parliament to send a fact finding mission to the Danube Delta and on the DG Environment to establish a Danube Delta working group.
What is more, in the framework of the event Jacquline Cousteau, widow of Jacques Cousteau and director of the Cousteau Foundation, announced the establishment of an award for environmental activities in the Danube Delta.
9. Winners of International Danube Photo Championship Awarded
Three photographers have won the ‘IFN Master Photographer 2008’ titles of honour in the IFN Photo Championship 2008 competition, entitled “The Danube and its Tributaries”.
The winning selections are: “Guter Fang”, or “Good catch” picturing a fish primed for cooking, by Switzerland’s Max Rupff for the colour category; “Sunbath” with a man sunbathing on a Danube raft, by Austria’s Erich Stiglitz for the monochrome category; and “Boats of Silence” on a sunset Danube, by Romania’s Dorian Hodorogea for the digital/slide category.
The award ceremony took place at the Vienna International Centre, the UN headquarter. The presentation of winners and prizes was made by Mr. Manfred Pils, President of the International Friends of Nature (IFN) and Mr. Saša Dragin, Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Serbia and President of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). The competition was carried out in cooperation with the ICPDR which has its Secretariat at the Vienna International Centre.
“Our goal for the competition was to give photographers from all across the world the chance to help make a wordless bridge between peoples throughout the Danube River Basin, and to raise awareness of the importance of the EU Water Framework Directive,” said Mr. Manfred Pils.
The winning entries as well as 80 more pictures from the contest have been displayed in an exhibition in the Rotunda of the Vienna International Centre from December 10-19. During 2009 they will be shown at different locations along the Danube, including in Tulcea, the gate to the Danube Delta, where it is scheduled for the Danube Day 2009 (June 29).
Linking the countries, landscapes and peoples along the Danube with the Danube Delta, the competition is part of the overall activities related to the “Danube Delta – Landscape of the Year 2007-2009” initiative.
Sponsors who supported the photo competition include FuessAudiovision, Kodak, Julius Escher Fotogroßhandel and Foto-Video Sobotka.
10. What’s coming up?
Promotion of Danube delta at Travel fairs
The new year starts with the important travel fairs in Vienna (15.-18.1.), Stuttgart (17.-25.1.), London (…2.- …2., Munich (….3.) and Berlin, where the Danube Delta will be promoted as destination for sustainable tourism by International and Romanian Nature Friends, the Romanian Association for Eco-tourism ,the Tulcea County Council and gtz Romania is this year’s special partner of the CMT in Stuttgart and Danube Delta will be one of the focus regions to be promoted there.
LoY annual report 2008
The Loy annual report on the activities and events during this year is supposed to be published in March.
Rehabilitation of a birdwatching site
For spring is planned the rehabilitation of a birdwatching site in the Saraturi Lake area close to Murighiol.. This measure is sponsored by the Studiosus Foundation.
Inauguration Natura trail Sf Gheorghe
The Natura trail Sf Gheorghe (see above) is supposed to be inaugurated in spring 2009.
Impress:
Editor: International Friends of Nature , Diefenbachgasse 36, A-1150 Wien, Tel.: ++43 (0)1 892 38 77, Fax: ++43 (0)1 812 97 89, e-mail:
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