On September 19th the team of the LIFE WILDisland project hosted a small excursion at the "Fit for MDD River Restoration Training 2" workshop, organized by the LIFE RESTORE for MDD fellow project.
On September 17th, about 30 participants in the workshop could learn more about the good practices of Danube restoration downstream of Vienna, including the revitalizations planned within the WILDisland project, presented by our former coordinator Georg Frank. On the second day of the workshop, the Donau-Auen National Park team hosted an on-site excursion. Unfortunately, due to the exceptionally high water levels, we could not carry out the boat excursion we had provided for, but we had a tour in our Visitor Centre in Orth an der Donau and our Schloss Insel, where we discussed the challenges and opportunities for riparian conservation in the Donau-Auen National Park and the WILDisland project as a whole.
The LIFE RESTORE for MDD project is a joint initiative of 17 partners from Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia in the UNESCO Five-Country Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube. The project, co-funded by the European Union, started on 1 October 2023 and will run until 30 September 2028. Over the next five years, 29 revitalisation measures are planned at 29 sites along the three rivers, covering an area of 2,100 km². In 17 Natura 2000 sites, river side arms will be reconnected, river beds widened and poplar plantations converted into semi-natural riparian forests. The project is coordinated by WWF Austria.
The sister project is using a lot of the best practices and lessons learnt from the WILDisland project and is also following the WILDisland concept for river restoration and redynamization and we are really excited to work in close cooperation and build on our mutual experiences.
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More information available HERE.