Ecological Restoration in “Liquid Societies”

Abstract

This article tells the story of possibly the first ecological restoration project in the postsocialist world (1994), which is an example of a broader set of ecological restorations carried out in Eastern Europe. By exploring the two intertwined processes of the ecological restoration of an island in the Danube Delta and the advancement of neoliberal economic ideas through land reform, decollectivization, and land privatization, we contribute to the understanding of ecological restoration in societies in turmoil. We engage a social sciences perspective in order to show the entanglement between ecological restoration processes and institutions, political arrangements, and various forms of land tenure. This theoretical perspective also shows a model all too often present in ecological restoration projects: a proclivity for adopting a neoliberal approach toward administrating natural resources at the expense of local ecological knowledge and the local administration of natural resources.

Slow ecology: Local knowledge and natural restoration on the lower Danube

“…Natural restoration projects in the Eastern Europe, at least those in the Lower Danube region, were carried out in the post-1990 period, after the demise of the socialist camp (Ebert et al, 2009; Schneider, 2015). On the one hand, this has made the institutional context of their deployment a ‘liquid’ one (Dorondel et al, 2021), with multiple changes from ownership of lands and waters to legal adequacy to EU law after some of the former socialist countries entered the EU. On the other hand, local natural restoration projects have been framed in much broader programs such as those carried out by the International Commission for the Protection of Danube River (Ebert et al, 2009: 218).…”

“…The political ecology perspective applied to the Lower Danube countries gave rise to a flourishing literature (for instance, Assche van et al, 2012; Dorondel et al, 2021; Richardson, 2015; Scholte et al, 2016, precisely about Danube conservation). Methodologically all these works are based on qualitative data collected mainly through semi-structured or open interviews.…”

Demonstrating the effectiveness of open‐water wetlandscape restoration: lessons learned from South‐Eastern Europe

“…(2) This area is located on migration routes of waterbirds providing breeding, resting, and feeding for many rare species (Tanislav 2014). (3) So far, countries such as Romania and Bulgaria reported limited or far away from expectations effects of riparian wetland restoration due to inadequate restoration planning or measures (Kalchev et al 2010;Dorondel et al 2021). ( 4) Most of the restoration actions are project-based, with low involvement in practice of the authorities and national-scale funding (Ioana-Toroimac et al 2024); thus, they do not benefit from post-restoration monitoring.…”