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Danube Sturgeon Task Force

DSTF

According to the DSTF Rules of Procedure from 2018, its aim is to coordinate and foster the conservation and revival of native sturgeons (Acipenseridae) in the Danube River Basin and the adjacent Black Sea by the implementation of such Plans and Strategies as the Sturgeon Action Plan adopted under the Bern Convention in 2005, the Program Sturgeon 2020 or the ICPDR Sturgeon Strategy.

Lobbying Activity

Response to European Water Resilience Strategy

4 Mar 2025

There is a need for a better and more integrated water management approach to protect human health and the environment of Europe. Water plays a key role for human health, biodiversity and for the EU economy. In the Danube climate and land use change are leading to increasing flood and drought risks. The preservation of freshwater aquatic biodiversity plays a key role in maintaining the ecosystem services that regulate water quality and availability, prevent soil erosion and ensure the provision of food and water for Europes population. While measures to reduce flood risk, improve water efficiency and ensure equitable sharing of access between water users will be necessary to meet the challenges in the Danube, it will also be equally necessary to protect the ecosystems that provides them. Diverse ecosystems are best equipped to resist and recover from environmental stresses, as they often include species that can thrive under a variety of conditions. Biodiverse aquatic ecosystemscomprising lakes, rivers, wetlands, and streamsare home to a wide range of species that contribute to the ecological balance and provide essential services for both nature and human populations. Areas with high biodiversity are often more resilient to events caused by environmental stress such as those caused by floods and droughts as they are better able to adapt to fluctuating water conditions. Biodiverse ecosystems also have a more complex structure, which helps maintain water purification capacity and can offer protection against the impacts of floods by reducing erosion and help to stabilize riverbanks and shorelines or by acting as a sponge to maintain water during droughts. The functional role of many species of fish is of key importance for the resilience of aquatic ecosystems and for maintaining food chains in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They perform important regulatory functions such as modifying the recycling of nutrients. They are also involved in the processes of sedimentation and substrate restructuring, controlling other organisms through predation, and contributing to diversity at the level of genes, species, communities and ecosystems. Healthy fish populations in the Danube as well as in other European freshwaters are therefore essential for the protection of their water resources. In many European rivers morphological modifications are responsible for significant losses of integrity and resilience in aquatic ecosystems. The Danube and its tributaries are no exception and include: - 80% of floodplains along the mainstream river are disconnected from the river - only 40% of the original sediment volume reaches the delta today - 56% of the Danube River exhibits riverbed erosion and 34% sedimentation - reduction of the Danube Rivers width by 39% and an increase of its length by 11% - 81 dams on the main Danube River and 700 weirs and dams on its main tributaries - significant impacts of modifications for navigation These hydromorphological changes in the Danube lead to significant negative impacts such as those set out above. The Commissions 2025 report on implementation of the Water Framework Directive confirms that river fragmentation and degradation of protected EU aquatic and water-dependent habitats and species, particularly wetlands and floodplains, remain a major challenge. Measures to prevent and mitigate hydromorphogical pressures on freshwater resources is far too slow and additional measures, including increased use of nature-based solutions and restoration of fish migration routes and habitats, are needed if aquatic biodiversity is to recover in Europe's freshwaters. Well-designed nature-based solutions can also provide multiple social, economic and environmental benefits on top of accelerating climate adaptation including enhancement of water and food security, mitigation of climate change, and reversion of nature loss.
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Meeting with Michal Wiezik (Member of the European Parliament)

16 Nov 2022 · Nature Restoration Law

Response to Protecting biodiversity: nature restoration targets

2 Dec 2020

Recent reports have demonstrated that EU is largely failing its ambition to protect European habitats and species and science is also clear that freshwater biodiversity is in particular need of restoration, with megafauna suffering the most. Also, the fate of the sturgeons is increasingly receiving political attention. Ministers of the Danube countries have in the 2016 Danube Declaration identified the sturgeon as a flagship species for the Danube River Basin and the Bern Convention recently adopted a Pan-European Action Plan for Sturgeon which was also endorsed for implementation under the EU Habitats Directive. This plan could act as a framework to guide future binding restoration targets for sturgeon species. Halting and reversing the trends of biodiversity loss must address the key threats, and thus include habitat restoration efforts. However, some species have been reduced to an extent that this will not in itself be sufficient. Additional holistic and directed species conservation measures will thus be needed. This is particular true for sturgeon species in Europe, where 7 out of 8 species are listed as critically endangered by IUCN with negative population trends. Many of them are already entirely dependent on ex-situ breeding efforts and if the ambition of concerted and coordinated action is not stepped up, these species will become extinct on our watch. Although existing EU legislation in the Habitats Directive, the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the CITES Regulation is relevant for sturgeon conservation, there are a number of important gaps constituting regulatory failures that hinder progress. Thus, the existing legislation does not address explicitly the restoration of a number of sturgeon species or their habitats: Five out of the eight European sturgeon species are currently listed under Annex V of the Habitats Directive. The Directive therefore requires Member States to ensure that their exploitation and removal from the wild is compatible with maintaining them in a favourable conservation status – which none of them are. Broadly speaking, as a consequence, Member States have put in place fishing bans. However, it does not require MSs to apply a strict protection regime for these species across their entire natural range, within and outside Natura 2000 sites or to designate core areas of their habitat as sites of Community importance (SCIs), and not least to engage in restoration of already degraded habitats. Clear restoration targets for such habitats under new EU legislation with clear and binding targets and timelines for the restoration of sturgeon populations, including financial opportunities for effective actions, would therefore provide significant added value to the protection provided by the Habitats Directive. The migratory nature of sturgeon demonstrates the need for connectivity from feeding areas in the marine environment to spawning and nursery grounds in the upper reaches of Europe’s river basins and makes the sturgeon an excellent flagship species for ecologically healthy and free flowing river systems. In view of the sturgeons’ need for transboundary migration corridors, the need for a coordinated effort to reduce the impact of fisheries (including by-catch) on sturgeon populations, the need to increase the efficiency of ex-situ facilities and conservation stocking, and to conserve and restore habitats throughout the river basins and in the marine area, it is clear that the objective of conservation and restoration of sturgeon populations can better be attained at the level of the EU through coordinated transboundary action and dedicated regional projects than by being left to the Member States alone. Attaining this objective will furthermore require international cooperation with non-EU neighbouring countries with which the EU shares its river basins and seas and a coordinated approach by the EU.
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