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>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 Be\u0219tepe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2019s future,\u201d said Orieta Hulea, director of WWF-Romania, cited in the press release<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n 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>\n 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>\n