{"id":3803,"date":"2026-07-02T11:04:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/?p=3803"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:58:35","slug":"gwp-cee-re-elected-to-dstf-executive-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/news\/gwp-cee-re-elected-to-dstf-executive-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"GWP CEE Re-Elected\u00a0to DSTF\u00a0Executive\u00a0Committee\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-408835cd\"><h4 class=\"uagb-heading-text\">Congratulations to our colleague Ivana Korn VargA!<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Category:<\/strong>             Biodiversity Conservation, River Basin Management, Policy Cooperation, Species Protection<br><strong>Target Group:<\/strong>     Environmental and water management authorities, researchers, NGOs, international river basin organisations, conservation experts<br><strong>Main Partners:<\/strong>   Danube Sturgeon Task Force (DSTF), International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), MonStur project    partners, Danube and Black Sea regional stakeholders<br><strong>Date:     <\/strong>               28\u201329 April 2026<br><strong>Activity Type: <\/strong>    Governance engagement, Strategy development, Conservation policy cooperation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-ast-global-color-2-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-5ddc8c4497cfc3ae828dd741414e174e\">The Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) participated in the General Assembly of the Danube Sturgeon Task Force (DSTF), held on 28\u201329 April 2026 in Munich, Germany. During the meeting, GWP CEE representative Ivana Korn Varga was re-elected to the DSTF Executive Committee (ExCom) for the next three-year mandate, continuing GWP CEE\u2019s active involvement in efforts to protect and restore sturgeon populations in the Danube River Basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The General Assembly brought together experts, researchers, public authorities, international organisations and civil society representatives from across the Danube and Black Sea regions to discuss current challenges and priorities for sturgeon conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sturgeons are among the oldest fish species on Earth, having survived for more than 200 million years. The Danube River and the Black Sea were once among the most important areas for sturgeon diversity, supporting six native species. Today, one species has disappeared from the region and the remaining species are threatened with extinction, with most classified as critically endangered. Because sturgeons depend on long, unobstructed migration routes between feeding and spawning areas, they are widely recognised as indicators of healthy, connected river ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the key outcomes of the meeting was the presentation of a new <strong>DSTF Strategy<\/strong>, developed to support implementation of the Pan-European Sturgeon Action Plan and contribute to the objectives of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Members also reviewed progress in developing a basin-wide sturgeon monitoring system through cooperation between the MonStur project and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), which will improve data sharing and support more coordinated conservation actions across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discussions also focused on some of the most significant pressures affecting sturgeon recovery, including barriers to fish migration at the Iron Gates and Gab\u010d\u00edkovo hydropower systems, navigation developments on the Lower Danube, fisheries management, and the need for stronger cooperation between Danube and Black Sea institutions and projects. Participants agreed on the importance of improving monitoring, restoring habitats, strengthening data exchange and ensuring that sturgeon conservation is better reflected in national and international policy processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Role of GWP: As a member of the Executive Committee, GWP CEE will continue supporting regional dialogue, stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange, contributing to joint efforts to safeguard one of Europe&#8217;s most iconic and threatened groups of freshwater fish and to promote healthier and more resilient river ecosystems throughout the Danube Basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations to our colleague Ivana Korn VargA! Category: Biodiversity Conservation, River Basin Management, Policy Cooperation, Species ProtectionTarget Group: Environmental and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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to our colleague Ivana Korn VargA! Category: Biodiversity Conservation, River Basin Management, Policy Cooperation, Species ProtectionTarget Group: Environmental and [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3805,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions\/3805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/cee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}