MonStur in the Danube; Establishing, testing and launching a transboundary system for Monitoring Sturgeons, to manage and safeguard migratory fish in the Danube River Basin

Previous transnational cooperation attempts failed to build a truly transnational and sustainable data and knowledge-sharing framework that would be the prerequisite for coordinated policy-making, regulation and conservation actions to preserve the declining and endangered sturgeon populations of the Danube River Basin. The key ambition of the MonStur in the Danube project is to establish such a framework (comprising of joint sturgeon population database and habitat inventory) that answers the following challenges: • Macro-regional scale monitoring should use a unified approach, similar/comparable methods and a shared monitoring system. • Overarching and continuous cooperation between relevant authorities has to be established and maintained. • Justified resources and commitment are required for long-term hosting and continuous updating of joint databases. Policy embeddedness and sustainable operation is a key success factor, supported by the following focal points of the approach: • A wide partnership is established, covering all DRB countries, including ministries, policy institutions and water management/environment authorities, combining them with research institutions and NGOs providing knowledge and field experience related to sturgeons, ecological corridors, and population and habitat survey. • ICPDR – contributing as a project partner – has a crucial role: it will host the joint monitoring system and will Integrate its use and continuous updating in the agendas and procedures of EUSDR workgroups as well as the upcoming Joint Danube Survey (JDS5). Other relevant ambitions of the project include: • Increased stakeholder involvement on national and macro-regional levels • Target the key knowledge gap of sturgeon monitoring: the lack of known spawning habitats; with targeted field surveys detecting spawning places • Deliver a multi-country sturgeon monitoring action plan and stimulate national action plans, for improved cooperation and harmonised conservation actions