Danube Basin/Black Sea in the last 15 years. The dead zone at the Blac Sea’s northwest shelf has been virtually eliminated and the Sea is showing evidence of recovery.
Since 2002, ten World Bank projects supported by the Investment Fund for Nutrient Reduction and financed by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) have been very successful in piloting measures to reduce nutrient loads entering the Black Sea and Danube Basin.
The projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Turkey supported, among others: - introducing innovative low-cost wastewater treatment methods (BiH, Moldova) - promoting wetlands as environmentally and economically friendly investments benefiting populations (e.g. Bulgaria) - restoring degraded land and reducing soil erosion (e.g. Moldova), introducing waste segregation and water quality monitoring (Romania); - constructing manure management facilities and promoting organic farming (e.g. Turkey).
The projects were part of the GEF "Strategic Partnership for Nutrient reduction in the Danube River Basin and Black Sea". The Partnership is a multilateral structure established with the cooperation of the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP, and other financiers, as well as basin countries to address the environmental degradation of the Black Sea and Danube Basin region.
The GEF Investment Fund is managed by the World Bank, was established to catalyze investments and accelerate action by other stakeholders interested in the recovery of the Black Sea. It managed to leverage US$365 million to complement US$70 million GEF grant funds for nutrient reduction investments in the agriculture, and municipal and industrial wastewater treatment sectors and for wetland restoration.
Details about the projects, a vast range of materials on nutrient reduction and much more about the successful GEF Strategic Partnership on the Black Sea and Danube Basin can be found on their new website.
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