Mihaela LICURICI
Abstract: The floodplain sector under analysis is located in the south-western extreme part of Romania, covering a distance of about 260 kilometres between the towns of Drobeta Turnu-Severin (westwards) and Bechet (eastwards) and extending on variable breadths, from a few tens of meters to more than 14 kilometres (with greater extension near the settlements of Ciuperceni and Cârna). In the framework of its strategic and economic importance, of the food sources offered by the Danube floodplain and ponds, the human interventions within this unit were diverse and affected the balance and the metabolism of the natural ecosystems. In numerous cases, this type of intervention, under its multiple forms, led to irreversible changes of the environmental features. The present paper aims at analysing the theoretical and actual conservation status of the most important flora, fauna and habitat elements that are characteristic to the Danubian environment, as well as presenting some examples of good practices or financing sources that might contribute to the improvement of this approach in the prospect of the region’s sustainable development. The SWOT analysis allowed for a general, synthetic assessment of the quality of the environmental sub-systems within the Danube Floodplain sector under analysis and of their development possibilities in concordance with the sustainability principles.