STANCA JEBOLOC NATURE RESERVE

A nature reserve between the villages of Cosăuți and Iorjniţa, near the monastery, it is the remnant of a huge forest that was called "the forest of Soroca". It extends over approximately 530 ha and is home to a very diverse fauna and flora. The forest was exploited in the past for the shipbuilding of the Russian fleet in the 19th century, the construction of bridges or fortifications. The development of agriculture has transformed forest areas into cultivated fields, leading to soil erosion and changes in the landscape.

The country's ^4th largest reserve abounds in water springs that continue to create a special microclimate, gigantic rocks emerging from the surface are witnesses to the transformations undergone by the earth's crust over the centuries. Caves exist, the best known of which is called "the cave". The river basin is home to a great diversity of animals, wild boar, deer, foxes, and rare species such as the rhinolophes, the Great Horned Owl, the Black Woodpecker, the Semi-Apollon butterflies, the diane and the European Lucan. The forests on the sloping banks of the river, planted mainly with oaks (including a 400 year old secular oak) and cherry trees, have a dense and rich flora, with a multitude of protected plants such as ferns and flowers, bird's nest neottie, pulsating anemone and the superb lily, to name but a few. Some wooded areas exist on the opposite bank in Ukraine.