Abstract
The 2,840 km Danube River is one of the major unifying ecological features of Central and Eastern Europe. The river begins in the Black forest of Germany and eventually winds its way to its discharge in the Black Sea through the Danube Delta. Historically human activity (channelization, dams, land-use changes, and pollution) has damaged the Danube Basin ecosystem. Of particular concern is the dramatic loss of floodplain forests and wetlands that has occurred within the basin. Since 1992, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been carrying out a major programme to address the problems associated with this loss of habitat. The WWF Green Danube Programme aims to protect the remaining natural areas, to preserve biodiversity, restore damaged habitat and thereby reduce everyday pollution. Important success has been achieved in this effort and is described in this paper. Demonstration projects have begun to reshape thinking towards coordinated wetland and floodplain protection in the Danube Region.
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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Weller, P. (1997). The Danube Challenge: Protecting and Restoring a Living River. In: Nelson, J.G., Serafin, R. (eds) National Parks and Protected Areas. NATO ASI Series, vol 40. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60907-7_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60907-7_11
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