The last DANUBEPARKS task force meeting in a row this winter was for coordinating the activities in River Morphology & Restoration as well as in Floodplain Management & Habitat Network. It took place on January 27th-28th in Bratislava, organized by BROZ.
The morning session on January 27th gave a chance for everybody to present their restoration activities. This first experience exchange led logically to one transnational activity: A best practice manual for river restoration projects, which will be elaborated by Danube-Delta Biosphere Reserve. The public procurement for the external expert will soon be finished, so that he/she can start working on this report! Towards noon, another main transnational activity has been discussed: The Joint Strategic Statement on Conservation and Navigation. Alexander Zinke, external expert contracted by Donau-Auen National Park for this activity, also presented some first thoughts and basic data for this joint statement.
The afternoon session was dedicated to floodplain management and habitat network, where first of all some of the numerous cross-border activities have been presented by the partners, plus some newly elaborated management plans and past experiences in cross-border cooperation. The connective transnational activity in this work package is the development of Guidelines for Sustainable Forestry in Protected Areas. The first thoughts on this topic have been presented by BROZ, and an active discussion developed with numerous ideas brought up by different partners and experts.
All the presentations can be downloaded here.
The second day first led the group into the Slovakian Floodplains, onto some islands directly beside Bratislava. Forestry management activities as well as side arm restoration projects have been shown “live” and discussed there. After a lunch in Hainburg with view onto one restoration project of Donau-Auen National Park, the tour went on to another restoration project close to Witzelsdorf, with explanations and experience exchange on the ecological adaption of groyns and river bank renaturization.
In total, this task force meeting has been made a big success by the active exchange of experience and the discussions about first drafts of big transnational activities.
At this point, we would like to thank also the staff of BROZ, who has organized this meeting perfectly well and professionally! The atmosphere was great for discussions, exchange of experience and opinion, and getting to know the other partners better once more!
