Thanks to the partnership between Fauna & Flora and the World Fish Migration Foundation, the Dam Removal Europe movement has reached Romania. A major international conference—Our Waters–Restoring the Longitudinal Connectivity of Romanian Rivers—took place on 8 November 2023 in Bucharest. The conference brought together more than 80 specialists and representatives of relevant institutions and civil society from 11 countries and from a range of institutions in the host country (the National Administration of Romanian Waters, National Agency for Environmental Protection, National Agency for Protected Areas, National Environmental Guard, research institutes, universities and other institutions). Several environmental NGOs, such as the Alex Găvan Foundation, WWF and Aquacrisius, were also represented, as well as private engineering companies.
Speakers, both Romanian and international, made technical and biodiversity conservation arguments in favour of removing dams and obsolete weirs, which block the longitudinal connectivity of rivers, hindering sediment and nutrient movement and fish migration. Of note were presentations by engineers from Inter-Fluve demonstrating the benefits of the removal of barriers from rivers. On 9 November there was a field trip to the habitat of the Critically Endangered asprete or sculpin perch Romanichthys valsanicola, which is fragmented by several barriers.
One of the benefits of this event was the collaboration that has developed between Fauna & Flora and the National Administration of Romanian Waters, the main governmental water management body. The results of Fauna & Flora's awareness-raising were also evident in the large number of Romanian Waters employees attending the conference. After the conference the chief engineer who led the Romanian Waters delegation proposed the development of a strategy and work plan to facilitate the restoration of the longitudinal connectivity of the country's rivers.
This openness from state institutions, as well as the positive feedback received from the attendees, encourages us to hope that the Dam Removal Movement in Romania will not limit itself to the organization of this event, but will result in the removal of as many obsolete barriers as possible and thus the restoration of longitudinal river connectivity.
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