Project “ Management Scenario Development for the Unguri – Holosnita New Ramsar Site and Awareness Rising on the Ramsar Convention Wise Use Policy”

Unguri-Holoshnitsa is the newly recognized Ramsar Site No 1500 (2005, COP-9) as the result of rapid assessment done by the BIOTICA Ecological Society and due to co-operation with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR). This is a site of international concern for protection of waterfowls and many rare species of mammals and plants.

Unguri-Holosnita Ramsar Site No. 1500 occupy 15553 ha mainly within Soroca district and partly Ocnita district. This includes areas and water bodies between Soroca-Otaci road and state border along the Dniester River, and is situated from the North-West of Calarasovca village till the border ot Holosnita village at the South-East.

According to the Section 2 of the Law No. 1538-XIII, the areas of wetlands of international concern remain at the owner disposal, their management being done according to the management plans and Frame Regulations of wetlands of international concern.

In relation with that, BIOTICA ES implemented the project “Management Scenario Development for the Unguri – Holosnita New Ramsar Site and Awareness Rising on the Ramsar Convention Wise Use Policy”. The project was supported by the Ramsar Convention and was implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources.

• To assess biodiversity and heritage values of the site, propose zoning and measures for conservation, restoration and sustainable use.
• To explain for local stakeholders benefits from knowledge on heritages, conservation and ecological tourism and reveal their opinion on institutional perspectives for the Site.
• To raise awareness of public and officials at national level, about wetland values, sustainable use, protection and management.
• To attract attention of Ukrainian specialists, authorities and NGOs to regional biodiversity values and prospect for probable transboundary Ramsar Site; promote recognition process on Ukrainian side.

In the frame of the project was developed Management Scenario for that region. This document was approved by the National Ramsar Committee. The draft of this document can be found here: Romanian version and Russian version. Also in the frame of this project the brochure “Ramsar Convention and wetlands of international importance in Republic of Moldova” was edited.

During the project 3 seminars were organized with the participation of the representatives of local mayoralty and District Councils from the region, as well as representatives of relevant national institutions. Also three Ramsar signs  were manufactured as installed on the field from the sources of the project.

Identification of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland: support to non-EU accession countries

In 2006-2007 BIOTICA Ecological Society as hosting organization of The ECO-Forum in cooperation with Regional Office for Europe of The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP/ROE) is implementing the project Identification of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland: support to non-EU accession countries. The project was supported by Norway Government.

In 2003 the European Environment Agency (EEA) carried out a pilot study on possible approaches for identifying HNV farmland in the EU-15 countries. The results of that work were summarized in a joint report with UNEP (see http://reports.eea.eu.int/report_2004_1/en). However, this work on the distribution patterns of HNV farmland needs to be improved and extended to other EU member and non-member countries. That is why UNEP in collaboration with Biodiversity Issue Group of European ECO-Forum, having BIOTICA ES as a host organization, conducted the project for evaluating the state of HBVF in EECCA, taking into account the subregional peculiarities for updating the information related to this and for developing a common vision on necessary actions in this direction.

Within this project the system of criteria and indicators of evaluating the special value of HNVF was developed, the distribution of different types of HNVF in EECCA region was analyzed, the evaluation of trends in HNVF state, number and area modification was done. Also some measures for situation improving were proposed from the point of view of biodiversity. This project included also a special case study on the territory of the Republic of Moldova that had the goal to find and to evaluate potential HNVF.

The results were presented during the HNVF in EECCA region workshop that was conducted on 16-17 November 2006 in Chisinau. At the workshop representatives of some EECCA countries, representatives of Parliament, Ecology and Natural Resources and Agriculture Ministries of Moldova , Academy of Science and NGOs, as well as project experts took part.
Within this project the Vision of the experts of the European ECO-Forum from the EECCA countries was elaborated, where the e cosystem classification of HNVF was proposed and were developed p rinciples, criteria and features for attribution of lands, corresponding to ecosystems classification, to HNV farmlands. Also in this documents were described examples of prominent HNVF from the region and were given recommendations and practical suggestions for conservation and sustainable use of HNVF. The text of this document can be found here: Russian version and English version.

High-Nature Value Farmland in EECCA countries workshop

On 16-17 November 2005 in Chisinau, Biodiversity Issue Group of European ECO-Forum, having BIOTICA ES as a host organization and UNEP organized a workshop in the frame of the "Identification of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland: support to non-EU accession countries" project Supported by Norway Government.

This is a completely new topic for Pan-European region situated to the East of European Union. Vision of the special role of this kind of territories was built within limits of EU-15. In Kiyv Biodiversity Resolution signed in 2003 at the Ministerial Conference in the frame of Environment for Europe process, country-participant has taken the commitment that by 2006, the identification, using agreed common criteria, of all high nature value areas in agricultural ecosystems in the pan European region will be complete, and countries donors agreed to support this work.

The workshop, opened by Mr. Gheorghe Duca, President of Academy of Science, has gathered 39 participants. Its core was formed by the experts of ECO-Forum and specialists group headed by Ivonne Higuero - project manager from the side of UNEP. At the seminar representatives of some EECCA countries, representatives of Parliament, Ecology and Natural Resources and Agriculture Ministries of Moldova, Academy of Science and NGOS took part.

Participants of the meeting noted that for all EECCA countries the concept of HNVF is practically unknown. The goals and tasks of HNVF identification and mechanism for their management are not formulated. It is known very little in EECCA region about the experience of EU and other countries of Western Europe on using economic stimuli and programs in the field of supporting HNVF and protected areas.

According to the opinion of experts, for HNVF conserving and sustainable using in subregion it is necessary:
- political recognizing of the concept of multi-functionality of agricultural lands;
- removing from legislative stipulation the arable land priority comparing to other types of agricultural lands;
- development of a system of registration of agricultural lands, taking into consideration their multifunctional destination;
- elaboration and implementation of forms of registration and reporting, allowing to identify among them HNVF assignment of responsibility to land user on the using quality, including HNVF protection, with simultaneous fiscal stimulating for protecting their natural value;
- informing about national and international importance of HNVF and of ecological networks for biodiversity conservation has to be directed both to decision makers and to wide public.

The workshop participants call countries to draw special attention to Kiyv Biodiversity Resolution implementation, particularly regarding agrobiodiversity, and at Belgrad Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" to assess actions ifof countries participants on implementation of Kiyv Resolution. They proposed to introduce a special chapter in Ecological Strategy EECCA, devoted to HNVF support and creation of ecological networks. They also expressed their opinion in supporting the elaboration of a common methodology of HNVF identification in cooperation with UNEP, UNDP, FAO, European ECO-Forum, IUCN.

Snakes conservation and steppe habitatS restoration in the Lower Dniester Ramsar site project

During 2004 and 2005 BIOTICA ES implemented Snakes conservation and steppe habitat restoration in the Lower Dniester Ramsar site project supported by the Frankfurt Zoological Society, Germany. The project had the purpose the research of the steppe sectors in the Ramsar site as valuable habitats for many rare species of plants and animals, including for snakes.

BIOTICA Ecological Society together with the Mayoralties and schools, for the first time in Moldova in the frame of this project applied the method of agrosteppe elaborated in Russia. To do this the seed material was collected in the area of multifunctional management steppe sector at the north of Bugeac in two period of maturation of steppe seeds. This fact was possible due to the permission of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and support of local authorities of Gagauzia. More than that, project participants of BIOTICA together with the pupils had collected seeds of different rare species of feather grass where these are preserved. Mayoralties of Popeasca, Talmaza and Rascaieti villages had allocated for creating the agrosteppe the sectors selected by specialists. These sectors were processed and on a total area of about 7 ha the steppe grass mixture was seeded, and on some places the botanists had seeded rare plants. The pupils enclosed one of the sectors with a green hedge with steppe bushes and seeded acorns of downy oak. The Mayoralties made the decision to maintain these sectors according to the recommendations elaborated by BIOTICA to be able to get here seeds and to improve the pastures using the agrosteppe method.

During the preparation of the sectors for seeding, the botanists and zoologists were researching the grasslands, collecting many data about the plant communities, about rare species of grasses, snakes and insects. After that they elaborated a management plan for steppe and forest-steppe sectors and transmitted to local authorities. The management plan was elaborated to improve the knowledge about the biological diversity of the territory, to prepare recommendations that were missing till now and to improve the possibilities for ecological reconstruction to protect the natural inheritance.

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