On 25th July in Palembang (Indonesia) during their yearly conference, UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme officially approved 29,000 hectares of valuable floodplain area along the Slovenian Mura as a Biosphere Reserve. A true reason to celebrate!

On 1st August, municipality Velika Polana organized a local awareness-raising event about the Biosphere Reserve Mura and the coop MDD project, where the main focus was on the role of the 13 municipalities in the management of the BR Mura and the showcase of sustainable local producers. During the formal part, mayors of the Mura region municipalities as well as several other stakeholders signed the "Mura Partnership Agreement", including signatures on a paddle that will be showcased in Velika Polana's RIVERS'COOL. The vivid public event included a cooking contest, the showcasing of local producers, and an evening concert. The whole event was of course also used to celebrate the great news of the BR Mura proclamation that the region received just the week before!

“The approval of UNESCO is a great achievement for the sustainable development of the Mura region, where people use natural resources in a sustainable way and are actively involved in their protection of their natural values. Investment in nature protection is not a cost but an opportunity! We as mayors are supporting local people and entrepreneurs to develop the regional economy in a nature-friendly way!”  comments Damijan Jaklin, mayor of Velika Polana and host of the celebration event.

The new Mura Biosphere Reserve in Slovenia runs along approximately 100 kilometres of the Mura, reaching from the Austrian-Slovenian border stretch to the Croatian-Hungarian border. It is also protected already under Natura 2000. Aleksander Koren, coop MDD project manager at the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation, explains: “This incredible river landscape hosts Slovenia's largest floodplain forests, where Black Stork and White-tailed Eagle breed.  The Mura is also Slovenia’s richest river in fish, and the last Slovenian river free from dams.”

In 2016, the Slovenian Environment Ministry nominated this valuable natural area as a Biosphere Reserve with UNESCO, which was now approved. The Mura River Biosphere Reserve in Slovenia is yet another step in the action chain for the establishment of the 5-country Biosphere Reserve “Mura-Drava-Danube”, the “Amazon of Europe”, after Hungary (2011) and Croatia (2012), followed by Serbia (2017) achieved UNESCO designation.

Gordana Beltram from the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning reminds of the importance of international cooperation: “By now, 850.000 hectares of natural and cultural landscape along the Mura, Drava and Danube rivers are protected by UNESCO. This international dimension is important – the Slovenian Mura River is connected with the Danube River by the Drava River enhancing rich riparian and aquatic biodiversity, enabling many species, including migrating species like Danube Salmon or Sterlet, to reproduce in our region. Only with transboundary cooperation among the five countries we are enabled to safeguard these rich transboundary natural and cultural treasures. The coop MDD project is working in that direction, bringing together people managing these resources along the rivers, outlining the main joint management objectives and jointly drafting a Transboundary Action Plan for our shared rivers!”