Paper short abstract:

The aim of the paper is that of showing, in a critical prospective, the practices of a Danube Delta village, Hezra (Romania), that develop as part of a broader process of transformation that affects the whole area, focusing on the loss of biodiversity and the ten year sturgeon fishing ban.

Paper long abstract:

In April 2006, Romania banned sturgeon fishing for the next ten years. Numerous international environmental organizations and institutions have stated that similar long-term recovery plans are needed to prevent extinction. Unfortunately the ban has lead to case of illegal fishing as trade in sturgeon caviar is an extremely profitable business. The aim of the paper is that of showing, in a critical prospective, the practices of a Danube Delta village, Hezra (Romania), that develop as part of a broader process of transformation that affects the whole area, focusing on the use of natural resources and the loss of biodiversity.

Part of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, the village of Hezra has seen rapid transformations of the rules governing the use of the environment and had to face with the arrival of new subjects (businessmen, traders) armed with economic and cultural capitals that they use to their advantage. Once a fishing village, Hezra witnesses today a substantial decline of the biodiversity especially connected to the fishing activity, mainly due to the ban of sturgeon fishing motivated by reasons of species protection. The practices and policies of environmental protection are an integral part of various projects of social and economical development of the area and are being realized and acted by different actors, using the gap of knowledge and power within local populations and between them and the outside world.