Abstract
This chapter describes small-scale fisheries in Romania within their historical, economic, and political contexts. It focuses on small-scale fisheries in the Danube Delta, which was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993. The chapter highlights that contemporary small-scale fisheries are small, with very few economic opportunities and low capital intensity, yet vital to the Danube Delta’s remaining population. The condition of Romanian small-scale fisheries is the result of failing post-socialist economic and environmental policies and ignorance of the problems that fishers have to deal with. As a result of flawed policies and environmental decline, the Danube Delta biosphere reserve is poorly managed. Its implementation is characterised by a lack of interest in developing new economic opportunities for fishers and, more generally, underestimating the local importance of small-scale fisheries. To maintain small-scale fisheries in Romania, improved monitoring of fisheries data is needed as well as more economic opportunities.
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Notes
- 1.
Romania’s connection to the Black Sea is a rather new one and was established in the decades following independence in 1859. Until its independence, the control over the actual Romanian territory was transient. All regional powers (Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Empires) conquered its territories at some time in history and subsequently tolerated the establishment of vassal states, called the Romanian lands (Țările române). The coastal area, Dobruja, was however characterised by an ethnically diverse population (with Romanians only accounting for 21% of the coastal population in 1877) and lacked cultural connections to the newly formed state. It required several treaties, wars and assimilation processes for Romania’s present coastline to become an integral part of the country (Van Assche et al. 2011b; Boia 2015).
- 2.
EU defines all vessels shorter than 12 metres, with a crew of one or two and not using towed gear, to be part of the small-scale fisheries coastal flee.
- 3.
Given their small numbers, in some studies vessels that range from 12–40 meters are also included in small-scale fisheries.
- 4.
Small-scale fisheries existed also in socialist times and even if independent forms of small-scale fisheries were at odds with socialist command purposes, not all forms of traditional and small-scale fishery vanished. Small-scale fisheries were complementary to industrial fishing but often not included in investment schemes. Still, small-scale fisheries were expected to contribute to nationally set quotas (Nicolaev et al. 2015) and small-scale fishers were employed by the state (Năvodaru et al. 2001). Industrial vessels caught an average of 70% of the total production and other types of fishery – among which were also small-scale fisheries – the remaining part (EC 2010).
- 5.
The megalomaniac national programme, under the leadership of Ceaușescu, had as a result that in less than three decades of rule more was constructed than in the entire preceding history of the country (Boia 2012).
- 6.
Box 3.1 of this chapter provides a different take on recent post-socialist changes.
- 7.
According to the EC’s factsheet (2016) on Romanian fisheries only 8% of the roughly €18 million reserved for fishery modernisation has been used and another 20% of the Community-led local development strategies funds that account for another €45 million.
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Teodorescu, D., van den Kommer, M. (2020). Economic Decline, Fishing Bans, and Obstructive Politics: Is there a Future for Small-Scale Fisheries in Romania’s Danube Delta?. In: Pascual-Fernández, J., Pita, C., Bavinck, M. (eds) Small-Scale Fisheries in Europe: Status, Resilience and Governance. MARE Publication Series, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37371-9_3
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