1.     The Government of Ukraine wishes, with the consent of all parties concerned, to establish a navigable waterway through the Ukrainian part of the Danube delta. Several choices have been proposed as to the routing of this waterway. At present, three choices are still under discussion. As requested by the Ukrainian Ambassador to France, and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, Yuriy Sergeyev (in his letter of 7 July 2003), the purpose of our mission was to examine these choices in view of their impact on the status and functioning of the Ukrainian Danube Biosphere Reserve (Dunaisky Biospherny Zapovidnik) designated by Presidential Decree on 10 August 1998 as part of the transboundary Biosphere Reserve in the Danube delta. The mission took place at the invitation of the State Agency for Protected Areas of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine (issued on 16 October 2003), in collaboration with the Ukrainian National Commission for UNESCO.
2.     The area covered by the Danube Biosphere Reserve (DBR) was listed by Ukraine under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance on 23 November 1995: the Kyliiske Mouth Ramsar Site (originally designated by the former Soviet Union as Kylijske Gyrlo, on 12 October 1976). The Ramsar Convention gives special attention to assisting Contracting Parties in the management and conservation of listed sites whose ecological character is changing or likely to change as a result of technological development, pollution or other human interference. This is carried out through Ramsar Advisory Missions, a technical assistance mechanism formally adopted by Recommendation 4.7 of the 1990 Conference of the Contracting Parties. The report summarizes the findings of the 53rd Ramsar Advisory Mission.