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Montenegro, literally meaning the “black mountain”, is a small upland country. Just over half of its territory lies within the Danube River Basin, the remainder being in the Adriatic Sea catchment. Notable Danube rivers are the Tara, Piva, Lim and Ćehotina and the Ibar. In October 2008, the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River came into force in Montenegro.

Integrated land development is a key of sustainable resource management and should be tested in a pilot project in Hungary. The outcomes of the project will also be disseminated in Serbia and Romania and should give the principle of integrated land development a boost in the Tisza River Basin.

Projects should have a clear impact on the livelihood of local people - this is especially true for the UNDP/GEF project “Integrating multiple benefits of wetlands and floodplains into improved trans-boundary management for the Tisza River Basin”. This pilot project is currently carried out on the Upper Tisza, in a village literally divided by the Tisza into two countries.

The Bodrog River Basin makes part of the Tisza River Basin and is shared by Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. Environmental problems and flood damages are increasing and putting pressures on the people - high time for a project of the UNDP / GEF to promote multiple benefits of wetlands and floodplains.

The Danube navigation dialogue, concluded in October 2007 with the finalisation of the "Joint Statement", is continued. A first follow-up meeting was held in January 2009 in Budapest, a second one is held in March 2010 in Zagreb, serving to assessing the progress achieved so far and discussing how to improve the application of the "Joint Statement" in waterway projects.

Between April and October 2007, an integrated stakeholder dialogue was conducted by ICPDR, Danube Commissson and the International Sava Commission. Main activities were 3 workshops and the drafting of the Joint Statement document.

The Secretariat of the ICPDR is located at the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV). A team of approximately 10 staff members support the work of the ICPDR and its expert & task groups, assist with project development and implementation, and maintains the ICPDR's 'DANUBIS' information system.

The ICPDR comprises 15 Contracting Parties who have committed themselves to implement the Danube River Protection Convention.

The final goals are to co-operate on fundamental water management issues and to take all appropriate legal, administrative and technical measures to maintain and improve the quality of the Danube River and its environment.

Accidental pollution in the Danube River Basin can cause widespread damage to the environment, and endanger the health of local people and the state of local economies downstream. This was exemplified by the effects of the Baia Mare cyanide spill in Romania in 2000 or by the Hungarian redsludge accident at Ajka in 2010. The ICPDR is working to prevent accidental pollution and to improve response capability by compiling an inventory of all relevant "Accident Risk Spots".

Organic pollution has been on the rise in the Danube over the last century, as human activities have resulted in increasing loads of wastewater rich in organic matter. The most serious organic pollution problems occur in tributaries that regularly receive untreated or inadequately treated wastewater from industrial plants and municipalities. Thanks to the significant improvement of wastewater infrastructure and services in the Danube countries, the basin-wide organic emissions reduced by 60% since the mid 2000s.