Delta of the Danube

The delta of the Danube ( Delta Rumanian Dunării in , Ukrainian Dunaiyskii huby in ), is located for the three quarters at the north of the Rumanian province of Dobrogée ( Dobrogea in Rumanian, Dobroudja into Bulgarian), and for a quarter in the Ukrainian province of Odessa, in the area of the Boudjak in southernmost Bessarabia. It largest and is best preserved European deltas , with a surface of 3 446 km ².

Geography

Whereas erosion grows in the catchment area, the Alluvion S deposited by the the Danube widen the delta from approximately 40 per annum Mètre S, thus making it very dynamic, but these alluvia can contain many Polluant S.

There is approximately 2 500 years, according to Hérodote the Danube was divided into seven branches. Upstream of Tulcea, the Danube is divided today into three arms which will be thrown in the sea: in the north Chilia, which acts as fontoère roumano-Ukrainian, in the center Sulina and the south Sfântu Gheorghe (Saint Georges), but much of other channels irrigate the Delta in many sectors with Roseau X, Marais or Forêt S, which are sometimes flooded in spring and in autumn.

With 44 kilometers with broad of the delta in Black Sea is the island of the Snakes, a territory of a few hectares yielded of force by the Romania to the the USSR in 1948, now Ukrainian, asserted by the Romania. It is also the case of four islands of the arm of Chilia: Dalerul pond, Dalerul mic, Coasta Dracului (downstream from Pardina) and Limba (in the south of the delta of Chilia). This litigation relates to also the statute of the port of Sulina (which will become frontier of the Ukraine if this one gains in front of the the International Court of Justice) and a vast territorial water perimeter rich in gas and oil.

In 2004, the Ukraine inaugurated work on the Canal of Bystroe in its part of the Delta, to create an inland waterway between the Black Sea and the lagoon of Conduc ( Sasyskyi lyman ). This project was highly criticized by many international ecologist organizations because of its environmental impacts. The European Union encouraged the Ukraine to give up this project, because detrimental for the local ecosystems and surrounding the delta. In 2007 the channel is about to be completed and the Romania plans to continue the Ukraine in justice in front of the the International Court of Justice.

Nature

The delta of the Danube shelters more 1 200 varieties of plants, 300 species of birds and 45 fresh water fish species in its many lakes and marsh. In 1992, following the efforts of the biologists roumlains and Ukrainians and with the media encouragments of the French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the small local reserves Rumanian and Ukrainian was set up in Réserve of biosphere registered on the Liste of the world heritage of UNESCO. 2 733 km ² of the delta are thus classified protected spaces, but the Rumanian scientists and ukrianiens have difficulties in collaborate as they wish it, because of the geopolitical stakes, especially since the roumano-Ukrainian border became, in 2007, border Eastern of the European Union.

Mouths of the Danube accommodate at the time of migrations, of million of birds of different places from Ground (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean) from which some come to nest there, and are an extremely full of fish zone.

At the beginning of the 20th century century, the biologist and ecologist Grigore Antipa, raises Ernst Haeckel founder of the ecology, was charged by kings Carol and Ferdinand with Romania to set up a rational operating system of the resources of the delta, which does not disturb hydrological and biological balances, while increasing the productivity. Taking as a starting point the recently acquired scientific knowledge and also by the ancestral methods of the inhabitants, Antipa on the spot put a management system of the roselières, ponds and lagoons, with a grid of a réseu of co-operative fisheries, which ensured the prosperity of the delta and its inhabitants until the Second world war. It made of Romania the first world producer of Caviar in the years 1930.

After having taken the control of the fisheries, the Communist regime (which conveyed the ideology of the fight of the Man against nature ) set up a program of Polder isation of almost 34.000 hectares of marsh (whereas Romania and the Ukraine never missed arable lands), of damming up of the channels and closing of the lagoons. The scientists or engineers who dared to murmur were severely sanctioned. This program caused a spectacular fall of the biological production and the disappearance of many spawning grounds.

Since 1994, an ecological vast program of rebuilding began Rumanian side, to try to find the last biodiversity. It is more the great project of this kind carried out in the world. The majority of the projects do not exceed the 50 hectares whereas in the delta of the Danube one works on more 15 000 hectares. The first zones subjected to the rebuilding were Babina (2 100 hectares) and Cernofca (1 580 hectares) in the North-East of the delta, and two years later the results were visible. The project received the price Eurosite on behalf of the European commission and the price Conservation Merit Award on behalf of the World Fund for Nature (WWF).

The refitting of another zone, Popina, of 3 600 hectares, began in 2000. In 2004 the ecological rebuilding of another zone of several thousands of hectares was finished. Now one rebuilds the zone Holbina - Dunavat (5 630 hectares). The results are beyond the hopes. International Wetlands , an ONG, carried out a world study on 2000 - 2004, checking 798 of the natural sites of 44 countries. 62% of the evaluated sites had a negative evolution and only 4 one positive development. And the best results were obtained in the delta of the Danube.

The next phase of the project extends over 10 years, of a cost of 31 million Euro S and implies two major components. The first is the pure ecological rebuilding (agricultural zones will be reconnectées with the natural circuits of the delta, to support the zones of reproduction of fish and those for the migratory birds). More " large morceau" is the paléodelta of Pardina-Tatanir (Tatomiresti) - Chilia Veche, which only counts with him more than 10.000 hectares.

The inhabitants of the delta of the Danube regret however that this program, which made go up the biological production, was not accompanied by a restoration by the co-operative system by the fisheries: all was privatisé, parcelled out with often foreign private investors with the delta, and many ponds are from now on inaccessible to the local fishermen.

Inhabitants

Approximately 15 000 people live in the villages of the delta, the majority of them living fishing. The cities count approximately 25 together; 000 inhabitants. The traditional boat of the delta, out of wood, is the Lotca with the raised points, Barque S able to split the reeds, and that one can mâter and to veil at will. At sea one uses mahonnes , large Baleinière S able to bring back enormous Esturgeon S of which some reach the ton. Two thirds of the villagers are Lipovènes (see orthodoxe Église old woman-ritualist lipovene) Russian descendant of S having fled religious persecutions in 1772. The principal center of the community in the Ukrainian part of the delta is Vylkove. The center Religieux of lipovenes is the town of Braila in Romania.

History

The human presence on the banks north and south of the Delta is attested since the Neolithic , whereas the delta itself was still a gulf of the Black Sea. The contribution of alluvia by the sea created the grinds , languages and sand banks which divided the gulf into lagoons, filled little by little by the terrigenous alluvia of the Danube and accumulations of plaurs (vegetable dead and alive floating with high waters, posed on the bottom with the low water level, and so solids that one could build huts of reeds above).

The Greek navigators discover the Delta towards the end of the VII E before our era, and Hérodote describes it with force details: at the time, it was less wide than today and the lagoons located at the south (Iancina/Rasim or Razelm, Galazu or Golovita, Fidilimanu or Zmeica, and most recent: Sinoe) were yet only gulfs (Argamos, Halmyris, Histrios) where the Ioniens open counters, which trade with the Gètes, the local Thraces and the Scythes. These counters form a confederation, and seek alliances to escape the Persian supervision then Macedonian. They are combined thus with the Pontus of Mithridate. At the time, the climate was more Mediterranean than today, because Histriotes had forests of pines marimimes, which do not push today any more. For one short period, the mouths of the Danube pass under the control of the kingdom of Daces (see Dacie) to the century of our era. Then the delta constitutes the northern limit of the Roman province of Mésie (then of Scythie minor) during seven centuries.

During the invasions " barbares" , the Dobrogée passes successively under the control of the Slavons and the Bulgares to the 7th century century, then Russian and Turkish-speaking Pétchénègues at the 9th century century, but the Greek cities and the mouths of the Danube, protected by the imperial fleet, remain under the control of the Byzantine Empire. The delta then becomes a refuge for the populations héllénophones and latinophones of the neighborhoods, which will train the people Dicien whose capital is Vicina. Between the 12th century and the 14th century, the Italian tradesmen of Genoa establish counters in the area: Caladda (today Galati), Licostomo (today Chilia veche), Eraclea (ruined today) and Constanza (today Constanţa). At the 14th century, princes of Dobrogée Dobrotici and Balco, then those of Valachie (in particular Mircea the Old one) dispute in Génois and the Byzantines the control of the mouths of the Danube.

But finally all will be losers at the 15th century, vis-a-vis the Ottoman Empire, which remains Master of the Delta until in 1829, when the Russian Empire seizes some. The treated of Paris of 1856, which put an end to the Crimean War, takes again the delta with the Russians, and divides it between the Moldavie (in north, currently Ukrainian part) and the Ottoman Empire (in the south, currently Rumanian part). This same treaty establishes an international commission which made a series of work to facilitate navigation. In 1859 the Moldavie and the Valachie were linked to form the Romania. In 1878, when the independence of this one was recognized, the north of the delta of the Danube became again Russian, while the south became definitively Rumanian. In 1918, the whole of the delta was Rumanian, but in 1940 the USSR found the formerly Russian north (more the islands Daller, Coasta-dracului, Limba and of the Snakes), which the Ukraine inherited in 1991.

Delta and avian flu

The Delta was touched by several hearths of Avian flu since 2003, and in 2007 FAO classified it in zone at the risk of Zoonose with recurring hearths of avian flu to H5N1, because of a possible endemic presence of the highly pathogenic H5N1. The October 29th 2007, following the confirmed detection of the H5N1 in breedings of German ducklings, FAO indeed alerted the EU on the fact that the H5N1 could already in certain zones of Europe being asymptomatiquement present in domestic ducks and geese. These animals in apparent good health could transmit the virus to the chickens in which the virus is mortal.

The risk would be greater of a persistence of the virus and hearth of avian H51N in the zones of the EU where important duck populations and domestic geese live. It is the case in the delta of the Danube where four million ducks and four million domestic geese are high in Romania (densities comparable with those of Asian zones where the H5N1 became endemic and circulates regularly in chickens specifies FAO). FAO estimates that it is necessary to re-examine the strategies of evaluation and risk management, monitoring and research of the virus, according to Mr. Domenech. The monitoring of the H5N1 should not be limited to only chickens. Joseph Domenech (Veterinary as a chief with FAO) exhorts the EU with " to prepare to face new waves of hearths of avian flu, most probably of the east towards the west, if the virus succeeds in being maintained throughout the year in the water birds in breedings.

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