Draft:Danube Biosphere Reserve in Ukraine

Danube Biosphere Reserve
Danube Biosphere Reserve
Location	Izmail Region Odesa Oblast
Nearest city	Vylkove
Area	50252,9 hа
Established	1998
Governing body	National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

The Danube Biosphere Reserve (ukr. Дунайський біосферний заповідник) is an independent environmental and research institution in Ukraine. Most of the territory of the Danube Biosphere Reserve (hereinafter DBR) is located in the north-eastern part of the Danube Delta within Ukraine in the vicinity of the city of Vylkove, Izmail district of Odesa region.

In the east, the DBZ borders the Black Sea, and in the south— Romania. The components of the natural-territorial parts of the DBZ are the secondary (marine) delta of the Kiliya Arm, the Zhebrianske Strand, the Stentsivsko-Zhebriyanivske Plavni (SZhP) and the Yermakiv Island.

Overview

Administration of the reserve and the head office are located in the city of Vylkove.

The administrative structure and affiliation: The reserve is involved with the conservation of natural resources, ecological and educational divisions. The governing entity of the natural reserve is National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Territory and History

The creation of a protected area in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta began in the 1960s. It was proposed by the scientists of Institute of Hydrobiology and I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology to create a biologial reserve in the Danube Delta. In 1964, an interdepartmental meeting on the integrated use of natural resources of the Danube Delta was held held under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; hence, the bioshpere reserve was recommended in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta.

By 1967, as declated by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the UkSSR No.490 dated July 24 1967, a nature protection zone was created in the Danube River Delta. A 1 kilometer wide inland along the coastal part of the Black Sea (only 3 thousand hectares) and a one-kilometer strip of marine area were included as preliminary subjects.

Through 1973 till 1978, The Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR creates the Danube branch of the Black Sea State Reserve in the system of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The Danube branch included the 7758 ha-area, later on expanding the area to 14851 hectares. The Danube Delta is designated by government decision as a Convention on Wetlands, mainly for aquatic habitat.