The Biospere Reserve of the Danube Delta

The Ecological restoration in the		The complex Delta transforming programme adopted in 1983 forsaw a more intensive land use which necessarily implied the erection of further dams and large-scale drainages. As a consequence the natural habitats of numerous plant and animal species were reduced and partly destroyed. The Danube Delta wetland complex hat been considerably damaged.		Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve
The Danube Delta is one of the world´s largest wetland areas and among Europe´s last largely natural landscapes. A development strategy for the lower Danube and the Danube Delta developed in the 1960ies proved, hovewer, to have far-reaching consequences. The construction of dams and channals necessary for the establishment of agricultural polders, reed harvesting, fishing and silviculture significantly altered the network of water courses between the main branches.				Due to the political changes in Eastern Europe, developments and orientations regarding nature protection were given new perspectives and also provided a fersh impetus to nature protection in the Delta. The first efforts aiming at the declaration of the Danube Delta Biospere Reserve were made in 1990 and became concrete withe its admission by UNESCO (MAB - Man and Biosphere programme) into the international network of biospere reserves (15.02.1993).
Quellen:
Verwaltung des Biospären- reservates Donau-Delta RO-8800 Tulcea/ Romania	Donau-Delta Forschungs- und Planungs- Institut RO-8800 Tulcea/ Romania
			WWF Austria A-1162 Vienna