Economic Decline, Fishing Bans, and Obstructive Politics: Is there a Future for Small-Scale Fisheries in Romania’s Danube Delta?

Abstract

This chapter describes small-scale fisheries in Romania within their historical, economic, and political contexts. It focuses on small-scale fisheries in the Danube Delta, which was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993. The chapter highlights that contemporary small-scale fisheries are small, with very few economic opportunities and low capital intensity, yet vital to the Danube Delta's remaining population. The condition of Romanian small-scale fisheries is the result of failing post-socialist economic and environmental policies and ignorance of the problems that fishers have to deal with. As a result of flawed policies and environmental decline, the Danube Delta biosphere reserve is poorly managed. Its implementation is characterised by a lack of interest in developing new economic opportunities for fishers and, more generally, underestimating the local importance of small-scale fisheries. To maintain small-scale fisheries in Romania, improved monitoring of fisheries data is needed as well as more economic opportunities.