Moldova marks World Wetlands Day

Chisinau, 2 February /MOLDPRES/ - The World Wetlands Day is marked today, as a result of the adoption of the Ramsar Convention on 2 February 1971. At present, as many as 2,186 wetlands are registered with habitat protected internationally, of which three ones are in Moldova.    

Moldova ratified the Convention in 2000 and manages three Ramsar zones, with a total area of about 95,000 hectares. It is about the Lower Prut Lakes, Lower Dniester and Unguri-Holosnita. These regions are protected by the state, registered by specialists biologists. At the same time, the zones were included in diverse international projects on the conservation and protection of biodiversity.  

In 2017, the Moldovan government approved a decision on the foundation of the first biosphere reserve, created in one of the biggest Ramsar zones of Europe, Lower Prut Lakes. The setting up of the reserve fits into a trilateral cross-border project Romania-Ukraine-Moldova titled, Consolidation of network of natural areas for protection of biodiversity and sustainable development in the region of the Danube Delta and Lower Prut – Pan Nature. The project’s partner on behalf of Moldova is the Moldsilva Agency.

An adviser of the Moldsilva Forestry Agency, Victoria Covali, informed that the creation of the first biosphere reserve in the Lower Prut meadow was backed by the European Union through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. “The project’s implementation is aimed at reducing losses of biodiversity and improving the living standards of the residents from the concerned zone. At the same time, we set to introduce and integrated approach of the natural resources’ management in the trans-frontier zone of the Danube Delta and Lower Prut, strengthening the involvement of the region’s communities,” Covali noted.     

According to the Victoria Covali, Moldsilva makes every effort to identify sources of financing and assistance on behalf of foreign donors, in order to ensure the continuity and sustainability of this project.

According to specialists, the Ramsar regions from Moldova are of international importance for the process of birds’ migration. On the concerned periods, more than 20,000 water birds, of which many belong to rare families, go through the Lower Prut alone. The habitat of the Ramsar zones of Moldova is made up of over 300 species of mammalians, birds, reptiles and amphibians.     

The World Wetlands Day was established on in the Iranian city of Ramsar on 2 February 1971. The executive committee of the Ramsar Convention convenes early and sets action plans meant to maintain the ecologic character of these zones.     

(Reporter L. Grubii, editor A. Raileanu)