What can experienced river guides from the Upper Danube in Baden-Württemberg and young people from the Lower Danube in Romania learn from each other when they spend two weeks together in these regions? Do they find a common language and let the young people be inspired by the idea of nature conservation?

The Danube Nature Guide project, which is financed by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation and technically supported by the German Limnological Society, builds precisely this bridge. During the first week of the course, the participants lived and worked together in the Friends of Nature House Donautal, and spent the second week on the Lower Danube in Galatz, Romania. Both weeks were packed with excursions to the two sections of the Danube and to the neighbouring nature parks. The group also explored many cultural and ethnological topics. Because the young Romanian participants attend a grammar school for nutrition and tourism in Galatz, they were able to contribute background knowledge.

“It is precisely because the pupils are still so young that we can give them the prerequisites that the nature conservation idea will later give them the opportunity to stay in the region and pass on these ideas”, Dr. Gabriela Costea.

Nature conservation as a perspective for a personal future

“It is precisely because the pupils are still so young that we can give them the prerequisites that the nature conservation idea will later give them the opportunity to stay in the region and pass on these ideas,” said co-organiser Dr. Gabriela Costea who has been working in Germany for three years. The limnologist Dr. Sabine Schmidt-Halewicz from Constance, the association Naturschule Region Bodensee e.V. and the Romanian partner association Green East Corridor in Galatz have jointly realised the Danube Nature Guides project.

In Baden-Württemberg, the wbw training company has been training watercourse guides for more than ten years. Graduates can thus offer their own water tours in their respective regions, which has already served the market well. In Romania, on the other hand, there is neither comparable further training nor similar offers for tourist tours. At these two ends the Danube Nature Guides idea is to take effect: for the water guides from Germany as additional offer, in Romania as starting package with German know-how and following, partnership support.

Attractive destinations in the Galatz region

The Galatia region actually offers many worthwhile destinations that nature lovers can address. So far, international tourism has concentrated on the Danube Delta. However, there are already 100 kilometres upstream attractive destinations: the Museum of Natural History in Galatz with its fascinating view of the one kilometre wide Danube, the nature trails in the Lower Pruth Nature Park near the mouth of this still naturally meandering last tributary into the Danube, and the visitor centre of the nearby Macinberge National Park with its juxtaposition of wet beech forests and dry grasslands.

The project will end in April 2019 with a closing event in Galatz. The partnership and project ideas that have been started, such as the opening of a platform for Danube Nature Guides or approaches to tourism offers, are hopeful, so that the two organisers hope for a continuation of the course offer.

Sabine Schmidt-Halewicz