European Award for the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation
The Council of Europe has renewed the European Diploma for Protected Areas, awarded to the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation
Eugen Coroianu, 30.10.2020, 13:10
The European Council has renewed the
European Diploma for Protected Areas, awarded to the Danube Delta
Biosphere Reservation in Tulcea, in southeastern Romania. It is not
the first time this happens, since this is one of the highest
distinctions in Europe, both due to the high scientific standards
that are applied, as well as the continuous monitoring of compliance.
The diploma has started being awarded since the year 2000, because,
with its wetlands with such a diverse flora and fauna, the area has
major biological value, with great landscapes and inestimable
cultural value for Europe.
This is what reservation governor Ion
Munteanu told us:
First of all, because of what
exists as natural heritage in the area. I am talking about flora and
fauna, habitats, and ecosystems. Secondly, they are optimally
conserved, and meet all the criteria demanded by the EU. I want to
say that we met all of them because, besides the fact that we have
many conservation projects, we’ve had many projects to revive nature
in areas that have suffered because of human meddling. I am talking
about 16,000 hectares of areas that used to be farms or fisheries,
and which have been restored to nature gradually, impressing European
experts, when they compared what used to be and what it is now. We
have very well trained colleagues, who studied both in the country
and abroad. We also have a corps of rangers who know very well what
happens in the field, and know very well the situation in each area.
When renewing the distinction the
third time, the European Council also formulated a series of
recommendations. One is to include in the Reservation Management
Plan, which is under revision, specific dispositions dedicated to
climate change, more to the point those that are relevant to the
long-term conservation of endemic species. Another is the need to
provide a base budget for managing the reservation, and increasing
the number of employees to ensure an effective means of carrying out
activities. The process by which the diploma is granted includes
analyzing technical documentation and field inspections by
independent experts in protected areas. The role of the diploma is,
on the one hand, to reward member states for protecting certain
areas, and on the other, because it is granted on a limited basis,
which can be prolonged, to encourage those states to continue
protecting them. We asked the governor of the Danube Delta what the
main problems faced by the reservation are:
This year was totally atypical,
because of the pandemic, atypical because people didn’t flock to
other countries to spend their holidays, but flocked to the Danube
Delta. In this situation, we believe that the number of tourists
skyrocketed, with the number of tourists on the beaches tripling. I
am talking about the beaches in Constanta County, Vadu and Corbu. It
was the case with the ones in the Delta, but they are harder to
reach, so people focused on the areas that they could drive to. There
were many boats in the Delta that worked overtime, sometimes at
higher speeds than permitted. We took measures. We ran checkpoints
and inspections all the time, we took action to protect those areas
with intense tourism, which were mostly prevention and awareness
raising among people on how tourism should be done in protected
areas. Another big problem is the overfishing that has been occurring
for many years here, and poaching, which is in fact another kind of
overfishing, as well as failure to report the quantity of fish that
gets caught, and reaches black markets.
The Danube Delta has a triple status
internationally: it is a UNESCO MAB biosphere reservation, as part of
the Man and Biosphere program, it is an international wetland for
aquatic birds, as part of the Ramsar Convention, and it is also a
UNESCO World Nature and Culture Heritage site. It is an integral part
of the Natura 2000 European ecological network, and has 3 protected
areas. There are also 20 strictly protected areas for scientific
purposes. They are home to 4,000 pairs of pelican, the largest such
colony in Europe, 320 fertile pairs of Pelecanus Crispus, an
endangered species, 70 colonies with a variety of other birds, namely
36 mixed and 34 monospecific, and 22 colonies of giant cormorant.
During the period of migration, the Delta shelters over 20,000 large
aquatic bird species. The area is exceedingly beautiful, with huge
biodiversity and resources, which makes it unique in Europe and all
over the world.
