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WCC 2000 RES 047 - Activity Report

Submitted by Calin.Dejeu on Thu, 01/31/2019 - 17:08
General Information
Conservation of the last wild rivers of Europe
IUCN Constituent: 
FB17E09E-5094-E611-97F4-005056BA6623
Period covered: 
2018
Geographic scope: 
European Union (EU)
Country/Territory: 
Romania
In implementing this Resolution your organization has worked/consulted with...
IUCN Members: 
No other Members are/have been involved
IUCN Commissions: 
No Commissions are/have been involved
IUCN Secretariat: 
No
Other non-IUCN related organisations: 
European Wilderness Society, Asociația Efectul Fluture, Asociația Altitudine, Asociatia Natura Transilvaniei
Implementation
Indicate and briefly describe any actions that have been carried out to implement this Resolution: 
ActionDescriptionStatus
Education/Communication/Raising awarenessWe wrote an article, to raise awareness about Raul Alb being threatened again.On-going
Policy influencing/advocacyRaul Alb is the last undisturbed and ecologically complete river in Romanian Carpathians. It was saved, with a huge amount of effort, from a hydropower project,in 2015-2016. Now it is threatened by a fish farm project. The ~works~ to set up the floodplain surface for the farm started illegally, with no environmental permit, in the spring of 2018, so we referred the matter to the Environmental Guard, which fined the company which threatens Raul Alb and stopped the illegal works. We also wrote an article, to raise awareness about Raul Alb being threatened again. The company sued the Environmental Guard and, after a few months, requested an environmental permit. The request was brought to the Commission of Technical Analysis, gathered at Hunedoara County Environmental Agency. Hundreds of concerned citizens wrote to the members of this Commission, asking for the law to be obeyed. Finally, the National Agency for Protected Areas did not issue the administrator's permit, so the Hunedoara County Environmental Agency could not issue an environmental permit for the fish farm, yet.On-going
Scientific/technical activitiesRaul Alb was proposed to be certified as a WildRiver by the European Wilderness Society. https://wilderness-society.org/wild-river-raul-alb/ On-going
What challenges have you encountered in implementing this Resolution and what measures have you taken to overcome them?: 
The main challange is the anti-conservation attitude of the county environmental agency. Oher important challenge is the fact that the importance of the functional flood plain for the ecological status of a river is not understood by the Romanian authorities. The impact of a fishing farm on a river course is also not understood.d
Identify and briefly describe what future actions are planned for the implementation of this Resolution: 
Future ActionDescription
OtherThe only option for this river to be protected on a long term seems to be a new lawsuit.