EXPECTED SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES FROM WETLAND RESTORATION IN THE AREA OF KALIMOK AND BRUSHLEN MARSHES, BULGARIA / Report on Item 5 of the Terms of Reference under Project Agreement between Green Balkans and WWF Greece, 2000 / ® Produced by Green Balkans, march, 2001 WWF With the financial support of WWF-Greece GREECE CONTENTS 1. Introduction page 2 2. Methodology page 4 3. Analysis on land use, land ownership, and the expected social and economic consequences from alternative wetland restoration options page 7 3.1. Land use page 7 3.2. Land ownership page 7 3.3. Feasibility of the alternative wetland restoration options page 8 3.4. Expected social and economic consequences page 10 4. Recommendations on mitigation measures page 12 5. Recommendations on stakeholder participation – consultation schemes page 13 6. List of appendices page 16 EXPECTED SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES FROM WETLAND RESTORATION IN THE AREA OF KALIMOK AND BRUSHLEN MARSHES, BULGARIA (Report on Item 5 of the Terms of Reference under Project Agreement between Green Balkans and WWF - Greece, 2000) 1. INTRODUCTION Kalimok and Brushlen Marshes, situated in the Danube Plain near the town of Tutrakan, serve as an example for the fate of wetlands over the previous century. Prior to the spring of 1948, during the spring high waters, the lowlands along the riverbanks used to be entirely flooded. The withdrawal of waters left huge marshy areas, similar to Tutrakan and Brushlen Marshes. The wetlands – permanent marshes and periodically flooded areas – used to cover about 11 000 ha. The whole area was used mainly for fishing and livestock breeding. Following World War II, the policy of Bulgaria, like the policies of the other European countries, focused on establishment of new areas for intensive food production for the people in need. As a result, the draining of the Danube marshes commenced in 1952. The direct link with the Danube was interrupted and a system of dikes and draining canals was built. For most part of the year, due to the high level of subterranean waters, only part of the former floodplains were turned into arable land. Large areas remained wetlands, which, however, had no direct link with the River Danube. In 1981, the construction of fishponds began in the area of Tutrakan Marsh, with a total area of about 520 ha. These fishponds were the largest ones in Bulgaria. Now, the value of Kalimok, both for the people and the environment, gradually decreases. The ecological factors and economic conditions of the country and area in particular have led to a situation in which large parts of Kalimok and Brushlen have been abandoned and there are almost no economic benefits for the local people. Due to the symbolic, practically missing link with the Danube, fish populations have considerably declined. The fishponds filled this gap only in the beginning. The operational costs for letting water into the basins with pumps are high. The accumulation of organic substances on the bottom of the fishponds causes a reduction in the productivity of the basins and consequently – of the breeding fish. Today fishponds are abandoned. Livestock farming and 1 meat production, which used to be an important economic factor, are currently in a very bad condition due to the lack of investments and areas suitable for grazing. The lack of natural water dynamics is a reason for the intensive growing of reedbeds and the diminishing of the open water bodies, which are the favourite habitats of a number of waterfowl. This interferes with the interests of hunters and fishermen and poses a serious threat to biodiversity. The changes in the water regime could bring benefit only for grain production: the soils covering the higher-altitude places are very fertile and provide a good yield. However, most of the lands in the area of the former marsh are inappropriate for intensive crop farming. Lower parts often become marshy due to subterranean waters, and the access to the non-flooded arable lands thus becomes harder. For many years, the people from the villages and towns surrounding Kalimok used to live with and make their living from the wetlands. This used to be a contradictory interaction for quite a long time. The river with its periodic floods was a threat, on the one hand, and a source of livelihood, on the other: fishing used to be, and still is, an important economic branch, typical of the area. The town of Tutrakan has a 19-century-long history. In the Middle Ages, it used to be one of the biggest centers of Danube fishing and boat-building. The present-day Museum of Danube Fishing and Boat-building and the Fishermen’s Quarter, which represents an interesting architectural complex, are nowhere else to be seen along the entire Danube. At the beginning of the 20 century, there were 5 000 fishermen in Tutrakan with 1 500 fishing boats. Up to 970 000 kg of fish were caught per year. Tutrakan inhabitants used to go fishing along the river and in the marshes from Orshova to the Black Sea. Tutrakan used to be a center of boat-building. Annually, 350 – 400 boats used to be built and exported to Austria, Hungary, and other Danubian countries. Following the regulations of the river and the separation of wetlands with dikes, fish catch became smaller and smaller. Today, in Tutrakan there are only 200 fishing boats, and fishermen complain because of their poor catch. Fish, however, was not the sole natural resource in the area of Kalimok. Besides fish, the marsh provided vast grazing grounds for livestock farming development and reed for building and household purposes. Herbs, snails, game, and waterfowl are only part of the numerous natural resources in the area of Kalimok. It is certainly impossible to repeat history and go back in time to the beginning of the previous century but the knowledge of the 2 past co-existence between people and marshes could serve as an example and source of ideas for the future use of the area. Proposed by Green Balkans, ‘A Project to Combine Sustainable Economic Development with Natural Resource Protection in the Danube River Region of Bulgaria’ was jointly implemented with WWF in 1997. ‘Kalimok Marshes: Combining Natural Resource Protection with Economic Benefit – A Development Proposal’ is a publication of Green Balkans and WWF International Green Danube Programme (1997). As a result of the project, the following concepts have been developed: • Concept for restoration of the natural hydrological regime of the marshes of the former Tutrakan floodplain; • Concept for designation of protected area; • Concept for environment-sound natural resource use; • Concept for eco-tourism; • Concept for educational programme. The activities were continued with a project for involvement of the local population. A Local Panel of Stakeholders for Kalimok Protected Area, with consultative functions, was established. The need for more precise parameters of the possible flooding led to the production of a report on the possible wetland restoration options, developed by Green Balkans with the financial support of WWF International – Danube-Carpathian Programme in 2000. 2. METHODOLOGY In this report, there are only comments on the impact that wetland restoration will have on the lands situated south of the dike, as the areas situated north of the dike (including the lands included in the proposal for protected area) will not be affected by any means in consequence of the present project. In the land use analysis, the electronic version of the land division plans from December 1999, available to Green Balkans, has been used. There are obvious errors in land division (part of Bezimen Island has been identified as municipal property) or the information is doubtful (part of Brushlen Marsh has been identified as municipal property; the dike on the Danube in the different settlement territories has been described as different 3 land use, and there are often no indications that this is the dike), which must be clarified during a future investigation. Despite the inaccuracies, the information from the land division plans is the only official information on land use. The actual land use in the area of Kalimok and Brushlen Marshes is shown in tables and maps that are enclosed as appendices to Report on Item 4 of the Terms of Reference under Project Agreement between Green Balkans and WWF-Greece, 2000. In the interpretation of land use, the following modification of the land division plan has been made: land use code 1900 (‘other agricultural areas’ have been included in ‘fishponds’, as Zone West of the fishponds, belonging to Green Balkans, is actually situated in them). To facilitate the interpretation of information on land use, land use is unified in the following categories, including the plots from the nomenclature written in brackets (according to Information Bulletin No 13 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Service of Land Reform, 1993, Sofia): • Fields (1100, 1111) • Abandoned over-humid arable land (1130, 1131, 1139, 1140, 1143 + that part of 1900 and 4413, on which there is no fish pond that is property of Green Balkans) • Grasslands, pastures (1239, 1239, 1321, 1333, 1400) • Roads (1700, 1710, 6115, 6130) • Fishpond (1900, 4413, on which there is a fishpond that is property of Green Balkans) • Forests (2110, 2113, 2200) • Marshes, bogs (4212, 8500) • Canals (4500, 4510, 4511, 4512) • Other (1147, 4800) In the tables for land ownership: for the sake of clarity, the plots where the fishponds belonging to Green Balkans are situated are given in a separate column. As the electronic version of the land division plans from 1999 was used, we suppose that there are two basic differences as of today: • The number of owners has considerably increased in consequence of divisions of private plots; 4 • Part of the plots that were temporarily municipal is probably privately owned now.