Danube Delta

Mining pollution (accidental cyanide pollution); 

UNESCO and IUCN have been informed of a Ukrainian navigation project on the Bystroe Canal located within the UNESCO Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, on the Ukrainian side of the border.  Although the Canal does not pass through the Romanian side (which is a World Heritage property), likely downstream impacts are projected.  Works on the deep-water canal connecting the river Danube with the Black Sea began in 2004 with the first phase having been completed in September 2004, subsequent phases are scheduled for completion in 2008.  The canal is being promoted as an alternative navigable route to the Sulina Canal built over 100 years ago on Romanian territory.  However, it cuts through the core zone of the MAB-Reserve and the Kyliiske Mouth, a Ramsar site. 

Preliminary information received so far indicates threats and potential impacts on ecosystem, habitat and species within the Danube Delta.  Experts warned that among all the alternative routes analyzed for the projected deepwater canal, the Bystroe version “represented the worst alternative”.  The acceleration of water flow in the canal is projected to drain water out of the Delta, drastically reducing its water level, intensifying evaporation and wreaking havoc within the marshland habitat.  Potential other effects include oil and noise pollution on the waterways produced by ships using the canal. 

A number of conferences and meetings have already taken place seeking to redress this issue and reducing tensions between the two States Parties.  On 21 September 2004 at the initiative of the Romanian authorities, an official consultation was held at the Geneva United Nations Environemtal Programme Office with the representatives of the international programmes and agreements (Ramsar Convention, Bern Convention, IUCN, UNESCO-MAB etc.) as well as Ukraine and Romania.  A follow-up meeting was held at the Bureau of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme at its 18th session (UNESCO, 25-29 October 2004) which reviewed the situation with regard to the transboundary Biosphere Reserve (SC-04/CONF.204/INF.5).  From 14-16 March 2005, a preparatory meeting for the International Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Danube Delta” took place in Kiev, Ukraine.  The subsequent conference is scheduled to be held in May 2005 in Odessa (Ukraine) to provide a framework for the widening debate and to address the sustainable development of the Danube Delta in a wider perspective.

The two States Parties concerned are keen on resolving this issue through a series of consultative meetings and workshops using a number of available international agreements and conventions such as the ESPOO, Bern, and RAMSAR conventions to which both are signatories, as well as UNESCO’s MAB Programme.