Danube Joins Us
The creation of capabilities for a Romanian - Serbian bilateral cooperation development in the field of protected areas management for the Danube Gorge Region

by Tim Rupa and Carmen Toma ^[1]

summary of project presented at the XV International Conference "Danube - River of Cooperation" (October 27 - 31 2004)

The natural treasure of Danube Gorge region, a thesaurus which have 4 national parks and a natural park (in Serbia and Montenegro: the Djerdap (Iron Gate) National Park; in Romania: Domogled-Cerna Valley NP; Semenic Mt. - Caras Gorges NP; Nera's Gorges - Beusnita Waterfall NP, all of them in Caras-Severin County, and Iron Gates of the Danube - in Caras-Severin and Mehedinti County) make from this region a very important and sensitive zone for an environmental approach, especially for protection and biodiversity preservation in point of view of trans-boundary politics.

The project proposes to create a Romanian-Serbian Parks Network (which will comprise park administrations and environmental NGOs) and also bilateral activities having as aim the knowledge of our common natural treasure and the mutual cooperation for its integration in some European specialized networks like NATURE 2000 Network, Euro-park Federation, Euro-water-net etc.

The main objective of the project is to initiate a network of contacts between specialists and NGOs representatives, which can support permanent activities with trans-boundary relevance in the environment protection, in the aim to integrate the natural thesaurus of Danube Gorge region on the European touristy and scientific map of values.

Specific objectives

• The creation of contacts network between the 5th park administrations and NGOs located in the Danube Gorge zone or dealing with biodiversity protection on the both banks of Middle Danube.
• Know-how transfer and common problems identification (e.g., the fish poaching on the Danube River, trans-boundary pollution etc) and the conception of common projects portfolio for their solution.
• Training by intensive workshops and seminars in order to create a common database with the flora and fauna from the natural reserves, which was set up on the both banks of the Danube River, and their integration in the European network database of NATURE 2000 network
• Support from the Serbian administration of Djerdap NP for the integration of Romanian Parks in the Europark Federation.
• The creation of common instruments for promotion and dissemination of the Danube natural thesaurus; like bilingual leaflets, publications and posters. International conference: Danube joins us - having as participants: representatives of Romanian and Serbia & Montenegro Governments, ambassadors, environmental experts, NGOs and mass media representatives.

[1] Tim Rupa, PACT Foundation for Sustainable Development, Resita, Romania
Carmen Toma, Environmental Protection Agency of Caras-Severin County, Romania

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