The wild horses of the Danube delta are a unique sight in Europe but conservationists warn that they are a threat to the region's
forests and marshlandThe port of Tulcea in Romania gradually drops out of sight as we sail down the Danube. It takes two hours to reach the little town of Sulina, at the southern extremity of the delta, where the river spills into the Black Sea. It feels as if we have reached the end of the world. Two thousand years ago the Roman empire chose this point as its eastern limit. More recently, in the 19th century, the European Commission of the Danube established its headquarters at Sulina.But the fine buildings belong to another era. After the second world war communism put an end to hopes of development. "We did not even manage to build a little bridge across the river," complains Stefan Raileanu, a vet with a passion for the wild delta horses.The horses are on the other side of the great river, in the undeveloped part of the delta. Some 4,000 roam freely here and over the years they have taken control of the well-protected wilderness. In 1991, the Danube delta was added to the Unesco World Heritage list. With hundreds of lakes and ponds, thousands of channels, huge stretches of forest and reed beds, the delta is a refuge for thousands of migrating birds and home to unique plant life.But the horses have become a source of controversy. "If the horses settle somewhere the next day the place looks like a football pitch after two successive matches in the rain," says Vioral Rosca, the head of Macin natural park. "They are so destructive. There are flower
species that are disappearing after taking ages to take hold. Soon this unique forest will be no more than a memory. To protect the delta they really have to go."The Danube Delta National Institute (DDNI) sees things differently. "We need to find a solution to avoid stopping this new trend on the delta," says Romulus Stiuca, head of the institute. But due to a lack of resources local ...
Try our segmented RSS Feeds
