Project on conservation of biodiversity to be carried out in Lower Prut region of Moldova

Chisinau, 16 February /MOLDPRES/ - A project on re-establishment and maintenance of the lake ecosystems from the Lower Prut meadow (Manta, Beleu) is to be carried out by the Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry and implicitly the Moldsilva forestry agency. The government of Romania will allocate 1.5 million lei for this project.  

The project’s stages this week were considered at the Ministry of Waters and Forests from Romania, which hosted a meeting of experts from both states. The meeting fit into a comprehensive agenda on the enforcement of the third Additional Protocol to the Agreement between the Romanian and Moldovan governments on the implementation of the programme on non-refundable technical and financial assistance worth 100 million euros.   

Contacted by MOLDPRES, the chief forest engineer at the Moldsilva agency, Nicolae Munteanu, said that the project on the conservation of the biodiversity from the Lower Prut meadow was of international, not only regional importance, as this protected area is part of the RAMSAR wet zone (intergovernmental treaty under the aegis of UNESCO).

“The project provides for the reconstruction and restoring of the hydrological regime of the Beleu and Manta lakes, reducing the losses of biodiversity through improving the management of natural resources, diminution of the level variations in lakes, degree of clogging and preservation of the flow of migrating birds through improving the conditions for their nesting and nourishment,” Nicolae Munteanu noted.  

The Lower Prut is the first Biosphere Reserve from Moldova and has become also the first protected area from Moldova to get the status of international importance within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The UNESCO Coordinating Council approved a decision to this effect last year.   

The reserve is placed in the lower course of the Prut river, including the Beleu lake and its surroundings, in the south-western Moldova. The reserve includes also the Manta make and a network of swamps which, all together, form a single ecosystem. The reserve has an area of 1,691 hectares, of which about one third is occupied by the waters of the Beleu lake and the rest of the area is represented by vegetation and the easily flooded meadow.