ROMANIA, 14 June 2017 – The first stakeholders meeting of many planned within the ‘LIFE for Danube Sturgeons’ project took place in Romania. On Wednesday, 14th of June 2017, WWF-DCP-Romania hosted the event together with DDBRA, which is another of the project’s partners, welcoming the representatives of the Romanian Police, Border Police and the General Directorate of Customs. They all gathered together to clarify the law framework in the area of sturgeon fishing in Romania and the legal limits of each of the institutions involved in the protection and conservation of the Danube sturgeons.
The primary purpose of the newly formed Romanian stakeholders committee is to discuss different options for support, feedback, guidance, scientific information, and also to ensure that all Romania-based activities are optimised to assist to the achievement of the project’s main objectives. Getting an external point of view from experts in the relevant fields is seen by the project’s management as a way ‘LIFE for Danube Sturgeons’ not to be another conservation project with very limited impact. Therefore, depending on the agenda for the upcoming committee meetings, a specialist for each of the discussed topics will be invited to join from among the following agencies and institutions: Border Police, Romanian Police, Romanian Gendarme, National Environmental Guard, National Agency for Fishing and Aquaculture, General Directorate of Customs, National Sanitary, Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, socio-economic and protected area management experts, fishing communities representatives, individuals from environmental and other NGOs.
This was a favorable moment for the project team from WWF-DCP-Romania to review again what they had achieved during the previous project focused on sturgeons – ‘Saving Danube Sturgeons’, and to discuss with the committee members the new aims set for the next four years up until December 2020. In addition, the team benefited from the opportunity to strengthen their collaboration with old partners, but also to start building new relationships that would provide them with additional support in accomplishing the team’s courageous goals. The next meeting is not set as yet as the stakeholders agreed to re-convene whenever the situation demands it. In the meantime, they will work on developing common instruments and approaches to actively support the work of protecting and preserving the Danube sturgeons.
