The new EU co-financed project "LIFE RESTORE for MDD" was officially launched in October 2023.
The project is led by WWF Austria and aims to initiate unprecedented renaturalization measures along the Mura, Drava, and Danube rivers. For the first time, 17 institutions from Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia will work together to restore altered river sections in the UNESCO Five-country Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube. As part of the €20 million project on the "Amazon of Europe", 29 sites along the rivers will be restored over the next five years - by institutions from nature conservation, water, forestry and provincial administrations, universities and environmental protection organisations.
The aims of the LIFE Restore for MDD are in full synergy and complement the actions of the WILDisland project, targeting revitalization, side arm restoration, habitat restoration and inter-sectoral cooperation and we are looking forward to establishing regular communication, sharing experience, knowledge and best practices, capitalize on the network of both partnerships and collaborate on specific areas of mutual interest. We are committed to organise a joint meeting at least once per year to exchange information, discuss project progress and plan and coordinate joint activities.
We also have several common partners - Duna-Drava National Park, Hungary and Vojvodinasume, Serbia, who will certainly ensure smooth cooperation and information flow.
This is why the two projects signed a Memorandum of Cooperation at the large-scale kick-off conference of the LIFE RESTORE for MDD Project, held in Sombor, Serbia, on November 21st. The event was attended by all LIFE Restore for MDD project partners, as well as media and many other official guests from Serbia and abroad.
Based on the cooperation on the project level, this Memorandum of Cooperation aims to strengthen the long-term cooperation of DANUBEPARKS – Danube River Network of Protected Areas and the UNESCO Five-country Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube, considering also the upscaling of the Danube WILDisland Ramsar Regional Initiative as a possible future joint activity.
We wish the best of luck to our colleagues and friends and we are looking forward to our future cooperation!
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More for the LIFE Resore for MDD project can be found here (English) and here (German).