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The Day of Romania's UNESCO World Heritage is celebrated every year on November 16, and the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (RBDD) is Romania's first natural site listed as a world heritage place in 1991.
"The Day of Romania's UNESCO World Heritage is celebrated on November 16 in order to promote the country's world heritage assets, for getting them better known. The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (RBDD) is the first natural site in Romania inducted to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991. Under UNESCO's 'Man and the Biosphere' program, the Danube Delta and other adjacent units were declared a Biosphere Reserve in 1990, with more than half of the total area of 580,000 hectares covered by the aquatic and terrestrial natural ecosystems being listed as areas with universal heritage value," states the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests on its Facebook page.
As part of the same program, the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve together with Ukraine's Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve were included in 1999 in the Network of Transboundary Biosphere Reserves.
"The value of the Danube Delta natural landscape, consisting of a mosaic of ecosystems formed by river branches, channels, lakes, reed wetlands, sand dunes, oak forests with Mediterranean vegetation, together with the specific anthropic elements represented by the local population and settlements confer complexity and uniqueness to this area," the Ministry mentions.
According to data provided by the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration, the reserve is home to 30 types of ecosystems, of which 23 are natural and 7 are anthropogenic. Spreading on 580,000 hectares (2.5 percent of Romania's surface) the reserve ranks 22nd among the deltas of the world, and 3rd in Europe, after the Volga and Kuban deltas.
The Danube Delta is one of the world's largest wetlands, serving as habitat for waterfowl and encompassing the largest compact reed bed area on the planet and a natural gene bank, invaluable to the universal natural heritage.
