The Tulcea County

Tulcea is a port with a long history, built on the ruines of the Roman fortress of Aegisus. The town borders the right bank of the Danube as an amphitheatre. Its name of Tulcea is used since the XVII-th century. Now it is a modern town, with a fine downtown and an elegant promenade on the bank of the Danube. Parks and rich flora give to the town and its surroundings a wonderful look visibily from the Hora Killock.

It is a developed industrial centre, but its main role is concerning the Danube Delta, and its Delta Museum. Tourist routes go to Macin, Garvan, and Isaccea, the region being known for its picturesque landscapes.

But the main important routes are the ones of the Delta, a large kingdom of water and land, floating islands, a real paradise for fishers and hunters, a paradise of birds and flora, and an unique landscape.

"The Danube Delta for us and posterity!" - under this motto it works in the Danube Delta Reservation of Biosphere.

Of the over 300 reservations of biosphere in the world, this one isn't among the oldest. It isn't the largest in the world, even its surface of 5, 800 sq.km is about 2.5 per cent of Romania's territory and places it as the fifth moist zone in the world and the second one in Europe.

But of the over 300 reservations in the world (o.n. - in Romania there are two more, but in mountain zones of Retezat and Pietrosul), the Danube Delta Reservation of Biosphere, with its headquarters in Tulcea, is the third one of ecological importance in the world.

In this sanctuary of the nature consisting in streams and lakes (over 400), floating reed islets (19.5 sq.km), "reed forests" (over 1800,000 ha, the biggest compact reed thicket in the world) and willow forests it was built since the world a real paradise of migratory birds arrived here from all over Europe and other contitents: over 300 species of which 176 nestle in the Danube Delta, and 184 being strictly protected by the Convention from Berne.

Also in the Danube Delta, in the hundreds of lakes, streams, channels (20.25 sq.km of water surface) live a number of 64 species of fish, some of them in a permanent expansion (crucian carp, bream); some of them in a permanent diminution (pike, tench, sheat fish, pike perch - not so resisting to polluation).

To protect and to save this temple of nature the Law nr. 82/1993 was promulgated. The Romanian Government and world organizations started to give a special attention to preservation of this patrimony, the Danube Delta Reservation of Biosphere being included in some national and international programmes to preserve it.

In all, in only last five years, over 22 billionaires were given for the recovery of this delta.

The Programme of the European Bank was materialized by different contracts between Romanian and foreign specialists, including an unrepayable credit of 720,000 ECU used here.

Also, the Programme of the World Bank - which is working - is an unrepayable credit of $4.5 million for this project.

The efforts of the Danube Delta Reservation of Biosphere were awarded by the great "Eurosite" Prize by the UNESCO in 1995, the highest European environmental Prize. Recently in March this year it was done at the World Environmental Conference of the countries which signed the "Ramsar" Convention (Brisbane, Australia) in which over 1,600 delegates from 93 countries members of this convention and 23 observer countries.