Populations of sand martin along the Drava River are increasing

Every spring for the last 10 years WWF and its partners are doing bird monitoring along the Mura, Drava and Danube River. 

This year is the first that we can report an increase of the bird populations and we are very happy to report that the biggest population of sand martins (Riparia riparia) has been identified on one location on the Drava River (Libanovec, close to Koprivnica). All together we counted 800 pairs of sand martin, 15 pairs of bee-eater (Merops apiaster) and 1 pair of kingfisher (Alcedines).

The increase of populations came because last year’s floods destroyed some of the water infrastructure along the Drava River that enabled the side bank erosion and formation of steep banks. This resulted in creation of bigger habitat for sand martin that lives on river steep banks.

In general, number of birds along the Mura, Drava and Danube River is decreasing. The situation on the Drava River is most difficult and out of 11 species identified only one species, bee-eater, is slowly increasing in numbers, while all other species are in big downwards spiral.

 Number of pairs of sand martin on the Drava River banks decreased from  12.232 in 2005 to 3.999 pairs in 2015. However, this year could bring an upwards trend and we hope that the conditions will not change and that the populations will continue to increase.

River Mura nominated for International Thiess River Prize

Restoration projects along the Mura in the Austrian province of Styria have started 20 years ago with the project "River Mur" which managed now to be among the three world’s best candidates for the environmental award of the "International River Foundation" (IRF).

"River Mur" already won the European River Prize in autumn 2014, prevailing against ten other European river basin management projects. With this achievement, the “River Mur” project has automatically qualified for the "International Thiess River Prize", which is awarded annually by the IRF.

Projects from around the world competed for the Thiess river restoration award, which will be presented at the International River Symposium in Brisbane, Australia on September, 22nd 2015. Next to the "Mur River" project, the Australian “Lake Eyre Basin” project and the Jordanian “Jordan River” restoration project are in the finals.

The Mura River covers a length of about 300 kilometers through Styria and ever since the early decades of the 20th century, continuous regulation has greatly changed the original course of the river. This has led to degradation of the riverbed and with it to a loss of biodiversity, a drying out of floodplain forests and an increased risk of flooding. This is why extensive restoration measures have been implemented on the entire Mura since 1995. Approximately 14,5 million Euros were invested by the province of Styria, the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the EU in order to bring back the Mura’s flow to a near-natural state. So far, six EU projects along the Mura were implemented, which lead to the revitalization of about 30 river kilometers.

“The fact that the Mura is nominated for such a big environmental prize nicely shows that river restoration on the Mura is the right way to go. It surely is also a big  motivation for everyone involved to follow this successful path in future and to bring back life to other parts of the Mura as well”, says Arno Mohl, freshwater expert at WWF. “Therefore, plans by the Slovenian energy lobby to build a total of 8 hydropower plants along the Mura in the Slovenian-Austrian border region are contradicting the spirit and justification of this international recognition” Mohl adds. This is in particular true, as long stretches of the Mura are already destroyed and used for electricity production through a chain of about 26 hydropower dams.

The nomination also emphasises the importance of studies such as the WWF Restoration Potential Study, which shows a staggering restoration potential for the future 5-country Transboundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Mura-Drava-Danube” (TBR MDD)”: within the Mura-Drava-Danube river area, a total of 650 kilometers of river banks could be restored, 120 side-channels reconnected and 165,000 hectares of floodplains newly created.

WWF „Karavan za živi Dunav“ posetio Novi Sad, Sombor i Bački Monoštor u Srbiji

„Karavan za živi Dunav“ Svetskog fonda za prirodu (WWF) koji na interaktivan i edukativan način prikazuje značaj vode kao prirodnog resursa i neophodnost zaštite i obnove vlažnih staništa, posetio je Novi Sad, Sombor i Bački Monoštor. Stanovnici ovih mesta imali su priliku da prođu kroz poligon zanimljivih, dinamičnih i edukativnih igara i saznanju više informacija o Dunavu, biljkama i životinjama koje ga naseljavaju, značaju vodenih ekosistema u životima svih nas, kao i o prirodi uopšte. Tokom posete Srbiji, više od 2.200 ljudi posetilo je interaktivnu izložbu, od čega je 180 ljudi učestvovalo u poligonu kako bi proverili, ali i unapredili svoja znanja o rekama i važnosti očuvanja istih.  WWF „Karavan za živi Dunav“ u Novom Sadu „Da bi Dunav i dalje bio reka koja daje i podržava život, obezbeđuje hranu i sklonište, mesto za odmor i rekreaciju, vodu za vodosnadbevanje i navodnjavanje, da bi nas štitio od velikih poplava i smanjio negativne uticaje od klimatskih promena, potrebno je da ne zagađujemo njegove vode i obale, da čuvamo njegove plavne zone, da unapređujemo njegov biodiverzitet i da negujemo održivo korišćenje njegovih resursa“, izjavio je dr Slobodan Puzović, pokrajinski sekretar za urbanizam, graditeljstvo i zaštitu životne sredine koji je podržao WWF „Karavan za živi Dunav“, jer ističe značaj Dunava za životnu sredinu i stanovništvo koje naseljava njegove obale.    O važnosti zdravih i čistih slatkovodnih staništa „Karavan za živi Dunav“ brojnim zanimljivim i edukativnim igrama, radionicama i kvizovima znanja za decu i odrasle, edukuje građane o važnosti očuvanja reka, ujedno pružajući im i dobru zabavu za celu porodicu.   WWF „Karavan za živi Dunav“ u Somboru „WWF zajedno sa partnerima radi na zaštiti i očuvanju reke Dunav i njenih pritoka u celom regionu, kao i na podizanju svesti javnosti o značaju vode kroz edukaciju što zapravo i jeste glavni cilj Karavana za živi Dunav. Kako bi se jedinstvene vrednosti Dunava očuvale, neophodno je da čovek mudro i integralno upravlja njegovim slivom kroz povezivanje sektora vodoprivrede, zaštite prirode, šumarstva, poljoprivrede i energetike. Ako bi se plavnim područjima vratila njihova prirodna uloga i kapacitet da zadržavaju vodu, bile bi obezbeđene dobrobiti za ljude i prirodu, poput prečišćavanja voda,  zaštite biodiverziteta, ublažavanja efekte poplava i pružanja usluga ekoturizma”, izjavila je Duška Dimović, direktorka programa WWF u Srbiji.     Duž Dunava regulacijom rečnog vodotoka prvenstveno za potrebe rečne plovidbe, poljoprivrede i izgradnje brana u poslednjih 150 godina uništeno je 80 odsto prirodnih vlažnih područja, kao biološki najproduktivnijih staništa. Posledice su višestruke, među njima su i smanjenje populacija riba, narušavanje staništa koja naseljavaju brojne vrste biljaka i životinja, pogoršanje kvaliteta voda, kao i smanjenje površina vlažnih staništa koje su prirodni rezervoari i značajno ublažavaju uticaj poplavnih voda.    WWF „Karavan za živi Dunav“  je putujuća izložba sa edukativnim programom koji govori o važnosti reka, močvara i jezera kao i dobrobitima koje nam pružaju. Deo je regionalne inicijative za obnovu vlažnih i plavnih područja duž reke Dunav i njegovog sliva koju zajednički sprovode WWF i Coca-Cola sistem. „Karavan za živi Dunav“ posetiće u Srbiji i Sombor i Bački Monoštor, a do kraja leta obići će više od 25 mesta u Mađarskoj, Austriji, Bugarskoj, Rumuniji, Hrvatskoj, Sloveniji i Srbiji.