World Wildlife Fund

Danube

Danube river gorges. Romania.
© WWF-Canon / Michel GUNTHER

Facts

• At 2,870 kilometers in length, the Danube is the second longest river in Europe and the Danube Delta is one of the most important wetland areas in the world, home to more than 3,400 fauna and 1,650 flora species.
• The 801,463 square kilometer Danube basin abuts 19 countries, making it the most "international" river basin in the world.
• Rising in Germany and flowing across Europe to the Black Sea, the basin encompasses Germany's Black Forest, the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, the Hungarian puszta plains, the Bulgarian islands and the giant reed beds and marshes of the Danube Delta.

Conservation Issues

• Channeling and the construction of dykes and dams for traditional flood management, shipping routes, hydropower and agriculture cut off more than 80 percent of the former floodplains from the river, aggravating flooding throughout the basin.
• The destruction of more than 80 percent of the basin's wetlands, floodplains and forests has resulted in severe loss of the region's biodiversity.
• As part of the "Trans-European Transport Networks" the European Union is planning to significantly increase shipping on the Danube. The decision on how this is done - whether by fitting boats to the river, or the river to the boats - will have a crucial impact on the river's future.
• Rapid rural development under economic pressures has led to over-grazing, deforestation and erosion.