Lower Danube

The main location of the Lower Danube Demo is the Calimok-Brashlen Protected Area (CBPA) in Bulgaria, consisting of four zones for biodiversity management, sustainable use, tourism, and infrastructure. Historically, the area was a wetland used for fishing and animal husbandry, but it was largely drained and converted into arable land, with some wetlands preserved without a direct connection to the Danube River.

Kalimok-Brashlen

Natura 2000 Site of Community Importance (SCI); Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in Bulgaria.

Pilot Locations

Maluk Preslavets marsh
Garvanski marshes
Managed Reserve Srebarna

Sibling Locations

Ropotamo complex
Atanasovsko Lake
Mostistea Lake
Srebarna

Challenges

Insufficient research, ecological management and monitoring capacities, which results in lack of data on the initial ecological conditions.
Anthropogenic pressures and environmental interventions, which significantly decreased the size of the wetlands and negatively affected the area’s biodiversity.
Insufficient funding for maintenance and upgrading of the hydrotechnical equipment.
Conversion of the wetlands into arable land.
Insufficient involvement of the local communities in activities and trainings for nature protection and revitalization.
Insufficient efforts (on national level) for floodplain’ restoration based on their importance for the economic life and the society as a whole.
Necessity of finding out climate neutral and intelligent scientific, societal and technological solutions for floodplain restoration.