Project location is the five-country UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube (TBR MDD) in Central and Southeast Europe where restoration activities will be implemented in four riverine landscapes: Mura River (in Slovenia, across the river is Croatia), Drava River (in Croatia, across the river is Hungary), and two along Danube River (Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve in Serbia, and Kopački Rit Nature Park in Croatia).

 

The project aims towards a healthy, resilient, and well managed five-country UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube (TBR MDD) which improves ecosystem services and biodiversity through large-scale restoration, while supporting a community-led nature-based economy to support sustainable development. The project will work with communities and government partners to directly restore four sites that are quintessential habitats (wet meadow, two side-branches, and floodplain forest), covering 1,100 ha of the floodplain landscape in three countries. This will provide benefits for more than 30 IUCN red list species, and have positive impacts for six Natura 2000 sites. Those direct restoration measures will increase water retention capacity during floods, minimise droughts and negative impacts of hydropeaking of the last Drava hydro-dam, enlarge spawning areas, increase nesting habitats for 250,000+ water birds and kick-off nature-based wet meadow and forestry management on the landscape level.In addition, the project will build the capacity of (the newly established) TBR MDD Restoration Task Force (RTF) to replicate four restoration projects, with communities, both during and after the project implementation. This restoration model will be showcased as an example to similar protected landscapes. The project will start off the Business Incubator to enhance opportunities for a nature-based economy and support local livelihoods in order to minimise emigration from the landscape, raising awareness of the benefits and opportunities the Biosphere Reserve provides.

 

The project will improve ecosystem functions and habitat conditions in the landscape. This includes increase in water levels in the side-branches of the Danube and Kopački Rit NP (CRO) sites, as well as bird and fish species numbers; an increase in butterfly populations at the Mura (wet meadow, SI) site; and creating an innovative model of floodplain forest management through conversion of 34 ha of forest plantation into native forest at the Gornje Podunavlje (Danube, RS) site. To achieve this, the project will restore 1,100 ha of the important quintessential habitats listed above, while working closely with the established RTF and the local communities.

 

Activities in Kopački rit is the direct restoration, that will consist of: removal of wooden debris along the side-branch (hand work/machinery) and its disposal; and partial deepening of the side-branch through sediment excavation where necessary (small machinery).

 

Project partners are:

• WWF Adria-Serbia (Lead partner) https://www.wwfadria.org/
• Kopački Rit Nature Park (KRNP- in CRO) https://pp-kopacki-rit.hr/?lang=en
• Croatian Waters (HV- in CRO) https://www.voda.hr/en
• Lendava Municipality (Lendava-in SI) https://www.lendava.si/objava/233956

 

Other partners are:

• Vojvodinašume
• WWF Austria
• WWF Hungary

 

Project duration is 5 years.

 

This project is supported by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme, managed by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative in partnership with Arcadia.