The Tisza cooperation is also an important flagship project for the EU Danube Strategy. It will help to tie the entire region into this set of measures and policies, dedicated to sustainable development in the entire Danube River Basin.
The Tisza River is the longest tributary of the Danube. Its basin is the largest sub-basin of the Danube Basin and the home to 14 million people in five countries. It is an area rich in biodiversity, providing habitants for many species no longer found in other parts of Europe. Many areas of the region, including nature reserves and national parks, are important ecological assets.
The Tisza Group comprises of the five Tisza Basin countries: Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. It was created under the umbrella of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) to prepare and coordinate all activities for the preparation of the ITRBM Plan. All countries of the Tisza Group are also contracting parties of ICPDR, which hosts the Ministerial Meeting under its current Ukrainian presidency. Since 1998, the ICPDR has played a key-role as a platform to coordinate international responses to environmental pressures. The development of the ITRBMP was supported by a three-year UNDP/GEF project to encourage improved land and water management throughout the Tisza River Basin. This followed a UNDP and GEF tradition to support the countries of the wider Danube River Basin that has lasted for 20 years.
“… experts have been heavily involved in data collection and its analytical processing, needed for the preparation of the Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan. This work has been shared among experts from the Tisza countries – the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine – all participating fairly in multilateral international cooperation.”
Mykola Melenevskyi, ICPDR President 2011 on the international efforts that allowed the Tisza River Basin Management Plan to be developed over the course of several years.
“The Tisza cooperation is important for the entire region, as it will become a flagship project for the EU Danube Strategy. This strategy will set the framework for developments in the Danube River Basin, and the Tisza countries now take the opportunity to act at its forefront. The Tisza cooperation carries EU policies and funding beyond the borders of the EU, to the benefit of all countries involved.”
Philip Weller, ICPDR Executive Secretary on the importance of the Tisza cooperation in the light of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, which will be adopted this summer.
The ITRBM Plan includes an analysis that outlines the pressures from pollution, river engineering works, floods and droughts. Furthermore, it gives an overview of the status waters and identifies the measures needed to be implemented to reach the objectives of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) by 2015. Serbia and Ukraine, which are not EU member states, have committed themselves voluntarily to comply with the targets set by the WFD.
The principles of Integrated Water Resources Management promote the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources. The aim is to maximise the economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.
The UNDP/GEF Tisza Project (Integrating multiple benefits of wetlands and floodplains into improved transboundary management for the Tisza River Basin) has worked closely with the Tisza countries and the ICPDR to develop the Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan. The Project had a focus on wetlands and floodplains to encourage further restorations of these important river basin features that have been lost due to intensive farming and flood protection and undertook three pilot projects addressing land and water management in addition to the co-ordination of the ITRBM support.
Water quantity management, such as flood and drought protection or climate change adaptation strategies, and development processes such as land use management, have a crucial role in reaching good water quality and quantity.
The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an international organisation consisting of 14 cooperating states and the European Union. Since its establishment in 1998, the ICPDR has grown into one of the largest and most active international bodies engaged in river basin management in Europe. Its activities relate not only to the Danube River itself, but also the tributaries and the ground water resources.
The ultimate goal of the ICPDR is to implement the Danube River Protection Convention (DRPC) by promoting and coordinating sustainable and equitable water management, including conservation, and improvement and rational use of waters for the benefit of the Danube River Basin countries and their people.
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For more information contact:
Peter Whalley
UNDP/GEF Tisza Project
Telephone: +44-7768-166-713
Email: pdwhalley@btinternet.com
Web site: www.icpdr.org
The virtual event which runs from 7-12 November 2011 and takes place 100% online will have two tracks: one in English and one in the German language. Interested participants can read the papers, exchange ideas with the authors and participant experts and browse through further background information on specific aspects of climate change and disaster risk management – by accessing the e-conference from their offices, schools and universities or from home, without causing further climate burdens.
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