Representatives of 11 out of all 15 WILDisland project partners gathered between September 6-7th at the Danube Delta to jointly follow the progress of our actions and celebrate the Rowmania Festival 2024.
The meeting was hosted by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority and the main part took place in Tulcea, Romania. Each WILDisland partner was invited to presented the highlights of 2024 and the plans for 2025 as well as the status quo of their main conservation actions.
We are happy to report that with minor exceptions, the projects is running smoothly and fairly in time. At this point, almost all technical plans for large-scale revitalization measures in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary have been successfully developed, submitted and are awaiting permissions. Even more - one of our Hungarian partners - Fertő-Hanság National Park - will finalize the excavation and opening of the sedimented side-arm behind the Erebe island already by the end of September 2024. Forestry actions against invasive species are continuing as planned in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. We also have the first comparative results following the Danube-wide socio-economic survey.
Our milestone achievement this year - the formal adoption of the Danube WILDisland Ramsar Regional Initiative by the Convention of Wetlands was celebrated with a special internal kick-off meeting, held on September 8th on a boat in the Danube Delta.
As a part of our Annual Meeting, we visited one of the WILDisland target sites of the hosts from the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority and Romsilva, an island, called RO164. On site we discussed the transformation of the hybrid poplar plantations into natural riparian forests and the actions against invasive alien species. We were able to see, that unfortunately the major dredging of a sedimented side-arm can pose a real challenge for the project team due to nearby infrastructure of national significance and because of the contermoprary military situation. We had an opportunity to discuss potential solutions with Mr. Bogdan Bulete, Governor of the area, and we hope to find an acceptable solution. We have to admit that our colleagues are working under immense pressure and we also experienced a midnight alert signal due to the proximity of the combat zone at the Ukranian border.
We are already preparing for our next joint challenge - the submission of the Mid-term technical and financial report at the first months of 2025, which would allow us to receive our next funding and contunue our further efforts.
In order to celebrate and promote our work, we took part in the annual Rowmania - Ivan Patzaichin Fesitval 2024 with an information stand with materials from all over the Danube, puzzles and games for the children and we also provided a very excited WILDisland crew for this year's Canotca boat rowing contest. A team of 11 enthusiastic rowers from Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, steering on board of the Chilia boat. Although we nearly won our heat, we ended up at the great 8th place out of 12 contestants and we surely all had a great fun.
We would like to cordially thank the entire team of the WILDisland project for their great work and commitment and we are looking forward to our joint efforts to establish the Danube WILDisland Habitat Corridor!
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For more information: Elena Kmetova-Biro - WILDisland Project Coordinator: e.kmetova@donauauen.at