Tourist season starts in natural reserves of Moldova

Chisinau, 09 May /MOLDPRES/ – The natural reserves within Agency Moldsilva launched tourist season for 2018 and registered several groups of tourists from botht Moldova and abroad. Most of the visitors are students of educational institutions, which have planned their excursions since beginning of 2018, referring to institution sources.

The most important reservations in Moldova are: Codrii, Plaiul Fagului, Padurea Domneasca and Prutul de Jos attract tourists not only through natural landscapes, rare species of flora and fauna, but also by planning tourist routes, information, and some have accommodations/camps or nature museums.

The oldest reservation, Codrii, with an area of ​​5,170 hectares, offers visitors the Museum of Natural Reserve, which includes about 500 samples, being structured on thematic principle. "The museum is in perfect correlation with the groundwork of reservation, with functions of preservation, restoration and presentation of collections for general public, education and information activities in the field of biodiversity conservation. A Dendrological Park, a tourist route, reservation also has accommodation places, is created on the territory of reservation," a press officer at Agency Moldsilva, Viorica Caciuc.

Reservation: Plaiul Fagului is located geographically in the center of Moldova. The attractiveness of landscape results from the way relief is structured, by increasing heights and fragmentation of territory. It is planned a touristic route with a length of approximately 2.3 km on the territory of the reserve and can be traveled in 2 hours of average difficulty, in order to promote secular beech forests (height 35 m, average diameter over 1 m and over 100 years old). On the territory of this reservation, there are four lakes on bank of which there are places for rest. This is remarked by festival Beech Feast, with aim of developing and promoting tourist potential of reservation, which is traditionally held in late May. The Ecological information and education centre: Radeniii Vechi is currently under reconstruction.

Padurea Domneasca is the largest reservation as an area of ​​5,920 ha and includes several tourist attractions in northern part of Moldova: Butesti Gorge, Stanca Mare, Suta de Movile, Zimbraria, Stejarii seculari, Tatal Batlanilor, Eco-tourism Pension La Fontal which is a relaxation point for tourists. The most important attraction, however, is Zimbraria, which currently has seven mammals (5 males and 2 females). The entrance fee for children is MDL 25 and for adults MDL 30.

In order to protect, preserve and study flood ecosystem and floodplain of the Prut river, it was created the Prutul de Jos Reservation. The universal value of natural heritage has been recognised as a wetland of international importance, especially as a habitat for aquatic birds, following adoption of Ramsar Convention. Through impressive diversity of habitats and life forms it hosts in a relatively small space, Prutul de Jos is a true museum of biodiversity. The possibilities of visiting reserve are varied and depend on time available, age category of tourists and hydrological level of Beleu Lake, which is most important attraction of this area. The trips on terrestrial and aquatic routes are available, with a length of 3 km.

These reserves were visited by around 10 thousand people in 2017.

(Reporter L. Grubii, editor A. Raileanu)