Anthropology of East Europe Review

CONSERVATION VERSUS LIVELIHOOD IN THE DELTA

Sandra Bell University ofDurham Iulian Nichersu, Lucia Ionescu and Eugenia Iacovici, National Institute for Research and Development

As the Danube approaches the last stage of its long lump together as "the ecologists" is the protection journey to the it forks into two branches that is given to fish eating birds, especially the the Chilia (120krn) and the Tuleea (17-krn). The migratory pelicans who breed in the delta during Tuleea branch further divides to the channel the summer months and the non-migratory (63.7krn) and the Gheorghe channel (109-krn). cormorants. These channels, together with 400 freshwater lakes All ofthe delta villages have a shrinking of varying size and a network ofinterconnecting population. The population of the delta fell from waterways, form the largest delta in Europe and an estimated 21,000 in 1970 to 15,000 in 1992. sustain a unique pattern of closely tied habitats and Those who are left form a predominantly elderly ecosystems. population. There is an increasing tendency for The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve young people to leave the delta villages. This has Authority was established by the Romanian been exacerbated in recent years by some parents government in 1990 to manage 5800 square sending their brightest young children to live with kilometers of wetland. Around the same time the relatives in Tuleea, the nearby town of 100,000 government also signed on to the Ramsar inhabitants, where the schools are considered to be convention, which placed the Danube Delta on a superior to the village schools (though this is not list of wetlands of international importance and necessarily true in every case). By the time they acknowledged the role of its reed beds as a filter reach fourteen all delta children should attend high for the Black Sea. The delta is a site of great school in Tuleea or in the smaller and much concern to the world's ornithologists because it diminished coastal town of Sulina, but not all lies at the intersection ofthe main European families can afford to pay the boarding fees. migration routes for 325 species of birds. Many of those who have left the delta The function of the DDBRA is to villages during the past ten years have relocated to implement and influence a range of conservation Tuleea where they try to retain contact with their policies issuing from the state government. native village and often send their older children However, in the preceding nine years the back for the long summer vacation to help management of conservation has led to tensions grandparents with animal husbandry and between the DDBRA and inhabitants of the horticulture. Since 1990 levels of unemployment eighteen scattered and often inaccessible villages in Tuleea have increased considerably and there is of the delta. These tensions center on the some anecdotal evidence that urban regulation of fishing, hunting and other economic unemployment is causing a trickle of returnees to activities, the imposition ofrestricted areas, local the villages. Planners link Tuleea' s future taxation and transport policies and attempts to economic prosperity with its position as an urban eliminate poaching "gateway" to the riverine delta and the development of tourism. The freshwater lakes and channels of the delta contain seventy-six species of fish. Fishing During the last fifteen years of the is a vital mainstay of economic subsistence for the communist regime the practice of tourists being delta's population and the most important hosted in the homes of delta villagers declined commercial species are carp, bream, perch, leading to the loss of an important source of sturgeon and shad. There are eighteen strictly supplementary income. The DDBRA attributes protected areas within the borders of the reserve, this decline to the fact that ornithologists from two of which are rare oak/ash forests. The other abroad could not find guides, but additional sixteen areas cover channels and lakes that were problems were caused by the regulations that previously available as fishing grounds, but are severely restricted from associating now strictly off limits to fishermen and protected with foreigners. Nevertheless, there is evidence to by DDBRA wardens. Another bone of contention suggest that some delta villages did continue to between the delta fishermen and those whom they receive visitors from abroad. Several inhabitants of

Vol. 19, No.1. Spring 2001, Page: 11 Anthropology of East Europe Review the coastal village of Sfintu Gheorghe claim to the villages on the edge of the delta bee keeping is have a long and unbroken tradition of letting more intensive and commercial. rooms to intrepid foreign tourists. Two Delta Villages Today passenger boats from continue to be the main form of transport to and Crisan and Mila 23 are two villages that, from the villages. Some villages have a daily together with Caraorman, form the administrative service, others only every other day with services· district of Crisan. There are eight administrative often being restricted in winter. Other villages districts that are completely contained within the have no passenger services. For example at the territory of the Biosphere Reserve Authority, each village of Caraorman the channel is too shallow with an elected mayor. Crisan , with a population for large boats. No roads cross the delta, although of 468, is the administrative center for Crisan roads skirt the southern and western edges and a district and so possesses the Mayor's office, a road now stretches a few miles from Tulcea to police post and the office of the district's Partizani on the Tulcea channel. As everywhere in agricultural agent. Crisan lies along a strait canal , people use small horses and carts, but that runs between Tulcea and Sui ina on the Black some villages occupy such a small amount of Sea coast. Mila 23, with a population of408, is continuous landfall that there is not much call for less well placed, being situated along a winding carts. People must get about in the traditional flat­ branch that connects to the canal at its eastern and bottomed fishing boats. A few boats have inboard western extremities. or outboard engines, but their spread is limited One major difference between the because transport problems make it difficult to identities of the two villages is that Crisan has the distribute fuel in the delta and so inflates the price reputation of being a Ukrainian village, while Mila to consumers. Because motorised boats cause 23 has the reputation of being a Lipovan (Russian) erosion to banks their lack assists conservation village. The inhabitants of Crisan and Mila 23 goals, but does not suit the fishermen, who often thus represent themselves, and are identified by row long distances to fishing grounds. In winter outsiders, as connected to one of two main ethnic the smaller lakes and channels freeze over, causing groups that dwell alongside those people who the fishermen to pursue their catch through holes consider themselves to be ethnically Romanian. In in the ice. the course of everyday life most of the inhabitants of Crisan village speak Ukrainian, although all the Water transport is also required to reach villagers also speak Romanian. Village surnames distant gardens and grazing ground for livestock. such as Ivanov, Iacovici and Trofimov function Most households have small amounts of land locally as markers of Ukrainian ethnicity, even adjacent to the house that are used for growing though for a philologist these names may suggest vegetables. In some instances a distant garden may nothing more than a shared Slavic origin. The be the only one that is cultivated, while in other village supports a women's choir, Rebalka (the cases it forms an additional garden. Men and name means fisherfolk), that performs Ukrainian women cultivate the gardens, which may require folk songs. However, in keeping with other delta irrigation in summer, but women do much of the villages that are identified as Ukrainian, for work. A typical garden is planted with potatoes, example Caraorman, Crisan is also home to those onions, garlic, peppers, greens, tomatoes, small who claim Lipovan or Romanian ethnic origins cucumbers, plum trees, beans, maize and and marriages across ethnic boundaries are fairly sunflowers. Pests threaten the yields of foods that common. However in the case of mixed marriages are stored for consumption during the winter, it is usual that children will accept the ethnic especially the all-important potato harvest that is identity of the male parent whose surname they prone to attack by eelworm or Colorado beetle. bear. Villagers keep cattle, sheep, pigs, geese, chickens, Much to the chagrin of its mayor Crisan turkeys and ducks. Cattle herding for meat, rather does not possess a church, but should the mayor be than dairy produce, is the second most important successful in his campaign to build one it would be economic activity after fishing, but not all a Romanian Orthodox Church. In delta villages households have access to land for grazing and the Ukrainians do not mark their identity by collection of winter fodder. Most households have maintaining separate religious congregations and at least one milch cow and cheese is made in have been absorbed into the Romanian church. summer and stored for the winter. A few villagers This is in contrast to the Lipovan villages like Mila keep bees and trade honey with their neighbors. In where religious and ethnic identity overlap. Other

Vol. 19, No. 1. Spring 2001, Page: 12 Anthropology of East Europe Review important marks of identity for the Lipovan works, while ferries to and from Sulina and Tulcea inhabitants of the delta are the use of an archaic are more frequent. form of the Russian language and the appearance All of the delta villages have suffered of the villages. Villages are easily identified as from decades of fisheries mismanagement that predominantly Lipovan because of the ubiquity of threaten the viability of what should be a a distinctive shade of bright blue paint applied to sustainable local industry. Fish catches are in the exteriors and interiors of houses, churches and decline due to a range of problems. These include on garden fences. factors such as an increase in the quantity and The Lipovan villagers claim descent from number of polluting discharges; increased nutrient groups who fled religious persecution ensuing loading in the river waters; canalization of the from reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church that river, margins and sections of the delta; as well as began in the middle of the seventeenth century and the effects of polarization for purposes of set off the great church schism known as raskol. acquaculture (Crean and Haywood 1998). The movement against the reforms came to be However, despite the decline in the abundance of known as the . Because the fish across a number of species, fishing continues movement lacked centralised ecclesiastical to be a significant economic activity. Freshwater authority, the Old Believers fragmented into fish capture accounts for the generation of around numerous sects all of whom opposed the state 5.2 million US dollars per annum within the supported, reformed church. Sects created by the territory of the Biosphere Reserve Authority. schism were persecuted and this led to the creation Among the total number of inhabitants of of a geographical diaspora of communities of Old Mila 23 and Crisan thirteen per cent describe Believers. In the early period the strongholds of themselves as dependent on fishing for an income. the Old Believers were often located along the A further nine per cent describe themselves as borders of the Russian Empire furthest away from laborers (muncitor) of which number some work the central administration. But as Robert Crummey in the collection and distribution of fish catches. points out: "The frontier, moreover, offered the Of the remaining percentage of workers thirteen possibility of escape to a foreign state if per cent are teachers, civil servants or managers persecution overtook the Old Believers in their while twenty per cent work as skilled laborers for refuges inside Russian's borders" (Crummey example as mechanics and as technicians in the 1970:23). pumping stations. A further fourteen per cent are Mila 23 has a brand new church because pensioners while thirty-one per cent describe the village suffered flooding in 1970. The old themselves as housewives. Church, which still stands, was badly damaged. Those villagers who are not full time The money for the new church was raised by fishermen are likely to have access to a boat and to donations from the wider Lipovan community catch enough fish for consumption within their within the delta, despite the fact that according to own households and to allow them to participate in -"'1ila's elderly priest there is a notable decline in village networks of exchange. In addition to the church attendance among the younger generation. predominance of fish at every meal, visitors to Nevertheless, the new church stands as a source of both Crisan and Mila are likely to be struck by the pride, a highly visible and self-conscious symbol ceaseless talk about fishing together with the daily of the village's Lipovan identity and its reciprocal rhythms that are associated with it. Hence in these links with the wider Lipovan community. various ways village life approximates what Crisan, on the other hand, has no church McCay (1978:397) describe as "a wet and fishy to boast of. Services are held by a visiting productive regime that defmes the social, cultural, Romanian Orthodox priest in the village hall. The and economic life of fishing communities." The Mayor represents a detectable, but not necessarily degree of homogeneity that emerges from such a unanimous, strand of feeling in the village that distinctive way of life seems for the time being at views the lack of a church as an unacceptable least, to outweigh the differences in ethnic and detraction from Crisan's secular importance as an religious affiliations that characterize the two administrative center. Its role as an administrative villages. The fishermen appear to share a large centre and its position on a main channel do give measure of occupational solidarity that depends on Crisan a minor economic advantage over Mila 23. the shared mastery of unique skills and specialist There are a small number of salaried jobs systems of local knowledge, together with the associated with the Mayor's office and the police much admired and necessary characteristics of post at Crisan, which also confer the advantage of hardiness and courage. Fishermen perceiving their a properly maintained telephone link that usually livelihood as under pressure from the massed

Vol. 19, No.1. Spring 2001, Page: 13 - Anthropology of East Europe Review ranks of conservationists personified by the DDBRA is supposed to influence people and DDBRA further increase such solidarity. towards what goals - apart from getting them to behave as the ecologists want them to. A Special Species of Place There are plenty of indications that the The issues discussed above raise people of the delta feel themselves to have taken questions about how members ofthe educated elite second place to the wildlife that the responsible for the management and economic conservationists so earnestly hope they will assists exploitation ofthe reserve perceive its in preserving. A fisherman from Crisan displays significance. Most, including those who do not typical disdain for 'ecologists' when he says: "We originate from this part of Romania, declare their know more [about the ecology of the delta] than admiration for the delta and pride in the part they what is written on paper. If we do according to play in its conservation. They see themselves as what is written on paper then we will end up eating the guardians of a rare and valuable ecosystem, a fish that is drawn on paper ... At Portita, where the source of regional and national pride. Similar grey mullet used to go what did they do? attitudes can be found when talking to people from Somebody thought to control the situation there non-professional sections of the population in because there were so many fish that they were Tulcea. Even people who never venture into the breaking the barrier that had been erected in the delta (known in local parlance as the balta) speak water. They said 'let's control it'. They blocked eagerly of their belief in its preservation as a local the way so that the fish had to go in another asset. direction which they thought would be better. But These perceptions are influenced not only the fish did not go there. The fish want to circulate by the Romanian government's creation of the where they always circulate." biosphere reserve, but also by the recognition of The villagers assert that they have just as the delta as a special environment by global much interest in protecting the environment and organisations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, preserving the delta's resources as do the the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the ecologists, although they feel that the ecologists International Union for the Conservation of fail to recognize this fact: " Here in our delta, if a Nature. In September 1990 the delta was listed as a man goes to cut a willow, he will look for a tree wetland of international importance especially as a with a dry top so that he can cut the dry wood for wildfowl habitat under the Ramsar Convention and his fire. He knows that next year he will need in December 1990 it was included as a strictly another willow for the fire so he will not cut down protected area in the World Heritage List under the the tree. I remember thirty years ago, a fisherman World Heritage Convention. from Rosu came from Caraorman with a carp weighing about 8 kg. He threw it onto the ground The delta's designation as worthy of at the fish collection point and said: 'Take it to the conservation and requiring protection evokes Research Institute at Tulcea to see why the carp in pseudo-religious sensibilities concerning the idea the delta are dying.' He was a simple fisherman of landscape as a sanctuary for the protection of who only knew enough to sign his name for his biodiversity. Viewed as a special place where salary, but he is the real conservationist in the wildlife is to be rendered safe from the effects of delta." human activity a biosphere reserve is somewhere Part of the problem lies in the different set apart and hedged around with rules and taboos. values that are placed on fish-eating species by the In this sense there are parallels to be drawn with fishermen and the ecologists. For example, sacred spaces dedicated to religious purposes, even cormorants, which live exclusively on fish, are though the purpose of the biosphere reserve is universally disdained by the fishermen, but valued entirely secular. by the ecologists. Scientists carrying out fieldwork Clearly there are national and global recently discovered a colony of cormorants where pressures on the personnel of the DDBRA to focus almost two hundred unfledged chicks had been on conservation and the maintenance of slaughtered in what was presumed to be an attempt biodiversity and to view the human popUlation as a by local fishermen to control the numbers of a potential impediment to these goals. The DDBRA species they regard as a serious competitor. is committed to influencing and transforming the In addition to restrictions and tensions ways of thinking of the delta's people. However, surrounding conservation the fishermen are also there is no indication of this having been addressed facing privatization of the marketing system. in specific ways. Nor is it clear exactly how the During the communist regime fish distribution and marketing was in the hands of the state owned

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Plscicola organizations. Fishermen delivered their which they are a part. Only then will it be possible ~atches to fish collection points for weighing and to address how the maintenance of biodiversity ~ecording. Fishermen received a salary and were can be reconciled with socio-economic supplied with fishing gear, including boats. But all development. These are the goals of a new :ills has changed and the fish collection points are lmtlatlve involving collaboration between :n the process of being privatized: "Now you are researchers from the Danube Delta National on your o\vn. You have to buy boats, gear, Institute for Research and Development and e\-erything. You can sell the fish or you can deliver researchers from the University of Durham in l: to the fish collection point." Collectivization Britain. This initiative is intended to address these made it easier for fish catches to be controlled and issues. The research is part of a larger European taxed, but privatization has led to an expansion in Union funded comparative program entitled black market trading and hence to over fishing of Integrated Management of European Wetlands .::ertain species. The introduction of mobile phones (IMEW), which will take place simultaneously has also led to an increase in the black marketing over the next three years in the Danube Delta, the of fish. Young men have taken up the new Saimaa lakes in Finland, the Nemunas Delta in technology to trade directly with restaurants or Lithuania and Kerkini Lake in northern Greece. A \\"ith middlemen in Tuleea and in the resort town multi-disciplinary approach is intended to provide of Constanza, which lies along the coast. an analysis of how people view their fisheries The number of stakeholder institutions ecology and how such views fit with scientific and confusion surrounding their conflicting roles observations. Researchers will then be able to further aggravates hostility towards the assess how the experience of formal education and institutionalized management of the delta and its other formative experiences influence traditional resources. The DDBRA is generally seen as a kind knowledge and beliefs about the environment. Part of supra-administration, but certain responsibilities of the research program will be aimed at assessing also fall to Tulcea County Council and to the the extent to which efforts to manage resources at County Board for Agriculture, as well as Piscicola. the institutional level impact on behaviors and This latter organisation continues to own and attitudes towards environmental factors and how oversee certain areas. One example is the island such behaviors affect the capacity for the known as Ceamurlia close to the village of Crisan. development of responsible tourism. Ceamurlia consists of good arable land that is not Readers interested in the progress of the exploited by the administrative office of Piscicola IMEW program in Romania and Lithuania should in distant Sulina and the villagers, who are short of write to the Project Coordinator at the Department land, resent their inability to plant gardens there. of Anthropology, University of Durham, 43 Old To them the island's uncultivated state represents a Elvet, Durham, DHI 3HN or via email at wasted opportunity caused by intransigent [email protected]. bureaucracy. From the villager's point of view References they have, on one hand, the DDBRA claiming that it wants to support human productivity that is in Crean, Kevin and Keith Haywood. 1998. "Aquatic keeping with conservation, as would be the case Resource Management Planning with cultivating the island. On the other hand, (ARMP): managing user activities at the Piscicola are seen as preventing cultivation for no confluence of the River Danube and the good reason. As one villager put it: "There is a Black Sea." Paper given at the Fourth terrible void. There are regulations that collide." ESSFiN Workshop, Southern Waters, 14­ The result is frustration and a stifling of initiatives 16 May, Hermoupolis, Syros. for self-help at district and village levels: "Any Crummey, Robert, O. The Old Believers and the time when the Mayoralty of Crisan tries to make World ofAntichrist: The Vyg Community an important decision those from the County and the Russian State, 1694-1855. Council and further on invoke procedural reasons Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. and, of course, we are not allowed to do what we want." McCay, Bonnie, J. 1978. Hurnan Ecology, Vol. 6. In the short term it is likely that conflict N04. between the delta's inhabitants and institutions charged with the implementation of conservation measures will continue. Efforts towards change require a detailed understanding of the relationship between the villagers and the wider ecosystem of

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