Search Results

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.

The floodplains and wetlands of the Danube basin are uniquely valuable ecosystems in global terms, although few areas are still in their natural or near-natural state.

19 countries share the Danube River Basin, which makes it the world’s most international river basin. 79 million people of different cultures and languages call the Danube Basin their home. For centuries they have been interconnected through the widely ramified water system of the Danube. All countries sharing over 2,000 km² of the Danube River Basin, as well as the European Union, are contracting parties of the ICPDR.

Since the 16th century, people have been changing the natural course of the rivers in the Danube River Basin, mainly for flood defence, hydropower generation and navigation. All these changes affect the ecological quality of the rivers. Changes in the depth or width of a river typically reduce flow rates, interrupting natural sediment transportation as well as the migration routes of animals.