Research Collection Journal Article The International Association for Danube Research (IAD)-portrait of a transboundary scientific NGO Author(s): Bloesch, Juerg Publication Date: 2009-08 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000083153 Originally published in: Environmental Science and Pollution Research 16(1), http://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-009-0151-3 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library Environ Sci Pollut Res (2009) 16 (Suppl 1):S116–S122 DOI 10.1007/s11356-009-0151-3 ENVIRON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ROMANIA—ESTROM • PORTRAIT The International Association for Danube Research (IAD)—portrait of a transboundary scientific NGO Jürg Bloesch Received: 26 March 2009 /Accepted: 31 March 2009 /Published online: 9 May 2009 # Springer-Verlag 2009 Abstract 1 Introduction Introduction The International Association for Danube Research (IAD), a legal association (Verein) according to The Danube River Basin (DRB) officially encompasses 19 Austrian law, presently consists of 13 member countries countries, four of which have only very small areas of and 12 expert groups covering all water-relevant scientific headwaters (Albania, Macedonia, Italy, and Poland). This disciplines. IAD, founded in 1956, represents a traditional figure includes the recently emerged Montenegro, while and significant stakeholder in the Danube River Basin, Kosovo as the newest independent state would increase the fulfilling an important task towards an integrative water and Danube countries to 20. This is by far the largest number on river basin management requested by the EU Water the global scale featuring a great variety of cultures and Framework Directive. mentality, which makes transboundary issues extremely Discussion IAD, stretching between basic and applied difficult and challenging, although people in the DRB have research, adapted its strategy after the major political developed a kind of solidarity as “Danubian countries.” changes in 1989. IAD fosters transdisciplinary and trans- Whether the country borders are along the river (as over boundary projects to support integrative Danube River some 800 km between Romania and Bulgaria) or across the protection in line with the governmental International river (creating the well-known upstream–downstream situ- Commission for the Protection of the Danube River ation) makes a significant difference. A meandering river (ICPDR) in which IAD has had observer status since does not respect a political border established in the middle 1998. Recent scientific outputs of IAD encompass, amongst of the channel and shifts from one country into another (as, others, a water quality map of the Danube and major e.g., in the lower Mura/Drava floodplains). While these tributaries, the Sturgeon Action Plan, hydromorphological problems are being solved on the political level by bilateral mapping of the Drava, a macrophyte inventory, and a border commissions and governmental mapping agencies, Mures River study. Further information about IAD can be the International Commission for the Protection of the found on our website http://www.iad.gs. Danube River (ICPDR, http://www.icpdr.org) is the official forum where issues of water protection and conservation Keywords Aquatic research . Danube River Basin . are treated since 1998. ICPDR with its expert groups jointly Environmental NGO . History. prepares projects and documents for implementation to be International Association for Danube Research (IAD) ratified by the national governments and is actively supported by many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the IAD having observer status, which is fostered Responsible editor: Walter Giger by public participation programs. J. Bloesch (*) The DRB lies in the historical “political fault” between Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology east and west, reflecting the battles between Asian and (Eawag), Turkish empires and European states, and finally repre- Überlandstrasse 133, “ ” Dübendorf, Switzerland sented by the Iron Curtain between capitalistic and e-mail: [email protected] communist countries. The different political systems have Environ Sci Pollut Res (2009) 16 (Suppl 1):S116–S122 S117 greatly influenced social behavior, technical development, was the monograph “Limnologie der Donau” in 1967 as well as water use and protection. Today, we can illustrate (Liepolt 1967) and the “Bibliographie der Donau” in 1986 the situation by the fact that, in the Upper Danube (west), (Godeanu and Popescu-Marinescu 1986). After 1990, four we have mostly “clean water in destroyed channels,” while volumes of the book series “Ergebnisse der Donau- in the Middle and Lower Danube (east), we have “polluted Forschung” (Results of Danube Research) have been water in more intact channels” (Bloesch 1999). As a published (IAD 1990, Weber 1993, Schmid 1994, Kusel- consequence of the recent political development, the Fetzmann et al. 1998). Since 1999, the IAD-Bulletin Middle and Lower Danube countries in transition are or “Danube news/Donau aktuell” reports on actual IAD are gradually becoming members of the European Union. activities in the DRB (Danube News 2008). Recently, some Hence, economic pressure in these countries will dramat- special issues of “Archiv für Hydrobiologie”/Supplement ically increase and subsequent development may severely “Large Rivers” (formerly “Donauforschung”) reflected impact near natural stretches and floodplains of the main research topics of IAD (Janauer et al. 2003, Bloesch Danube River and its major tributaries (Sava, Drava, and 2005, Hein et al. 2008). Since 2004, the IAD literature Tisza). (some 600 titles) is hosted by the Library of the University The Danube River is also the geographical border of Vienna (http://www.univie.ac.at/fb-biologie). between east and west. The Ponto-Caspian relicts are still After the fall of communism in 1989, major political an important part of the natural fauna. However, the changes significantly affected issues of water protection, nuisance of invasive neozoans and neophytes threatening too. IAD had to adapt its strategy as in 1998 the ICPDR native species is prominent, as the trans-European water- took over the international coordination on a governmental way system links the Danube River with the Rhine River level. IAD became one of the first observers in ICPDR and promotes the exchange of plants, benthos, and fish where it brings in scientific expertise in the various ICPDR across large river basins (Bloesch and Sieber 2003). expert groups. For example, today, IAD strives towards innovative steering and coordination of water research in the DRB, including the implementation of joint projects by 2 IAD, the oldest Danubian NGO scientific representatives of the 13 member countries: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, In 1956, the Viennese Reinhard Liepolt founded the Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, International Association for Danube Research (IAD, Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova. National IAD committees Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Donauforschung) in exist in Austria (since 1976, http://www.oen-iad.org), the frame of the XIII Congress of the Societas Internatio- Serbia (since 2003, http://www.iad.org.yu), and Romania nalis Limnologiae (SIL) in Helsinki. While the global SIL (since 2007). They develop their own independent NGO (http://www.limnology.org) provided an umbrella and acted activities that are, however, in line with the general as the roof organization, IAD made the “iron curtain” framework of IAD. semipermeable for scientific experts of Western and Eastern Europe. During the aspiring times after the Second World War, it was necessary to support and coordinate the 3 Main research activities of IAD for a healthy Danube increasing activities in the fields of limnology, water resources management, and protection against pollution in In the 1950s to 1990s, a main focus in the DRB was the DRB. With persistence, Liepolt followed his goals organic pollution and, hence, chemical and biological through the Academy of Sciences, national committees, monitoring of streams and rivers was an imperative task. ministries, and scientific institutes, and linked Danube IAD took a strong position in plankton and benthos scientists from Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and all the inventories and investigations that were applied in the riparian countries downstream, to the former Soviet Union saprobic system, mainly developed by the Czech Vladimir in cooperative activities. Sládeček (1973). IAD accumulated a lot of taxonomic Member country representatives regularly meet in expertise—the scientific basis of biodiversity—that culmi- international IAD conferences hosted in a given sequence nated in the publication of a map of the biological water by all countries. The papers presented are published in the quality of the Danube River (Fig. 1; Schmid 2004). This is IAD Conference Proceedings (as for example Teodorović et still the only existing overall DRB quality map based on al. 2004), formerly the series “Limnologische Berichte saprobiology. The Upper Danube is mainly water class II Donau” (Limnological Danube Reports). Main conference (moderately polluted), while the Middle Danube is class II– topics reflecting the actual and hottest issues of limnolog- III (critically polluted). Downstream of Vienna, large cities ical research and water management
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