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The speaker of this "Inimkond" seminar is Dr Georgeta Stoica from University of Perugia, who will be talking at 6 p.m. in room A-447 about Nature Conservation in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. Conflicts and Practices.

Synopsis

The Danube Delta is internationally renowned for its valuable and unique characteristics – being designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance (1990), recognised as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (1990) and added to the UNESCO World Heritage list (1991). In this context, the new nature conservation legislation completely changed the way of living for local inhabitants and produced conflicts between them and the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve authorities.

The practices and policies of environmental protection are an integral part of various projects of social and economic development of the area. They are realised and acted upon by different participants, using the gap of knowledge and power within local populations as well as between them and the outside world. Based on fieldwork conducted from 2007 to 2009 in the village of Hezra, this presentation shall explore the rapid transformation of a community of fishermen related to the introduction of restrictions concerning the fishing activity and the fast development of tourism. The focus of the analysis is on the ten-year sturgeon-fishing ban imposed by Romania in 2006 and on the consequences that it had at a local level.