The locality “Mouth of the Revenica river” at the Obedska Bara was the venue for the Sava TIES activities on Thursday, 22 August 2019, aiming to raise awareness of invasive species management. This was a good opportunity to pay attention to the need for active and permanent action aimed to reducing the abundance of these species. Participants of this event were members of an international volunteer camp, employees of PE "Vojvodinašume", Provincial Secretariat for Urbanism and Environment, Provincial Institute for Nature Conservation, Young Researchers of Serbia, local NGO "Green View" and Medical Spa Association.

About 50 participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Sava TIES project at the very beginning, but also with the activities of all institutions (at the same time members of the stakeholder committee) focusing on elimination of invasive species in the Obedska Bara area, as well as other activities such as forest medicine.

Yesterday's gathering under the Sava TIES project is very significant because it also had an international character. On 18 August, when 14 volunteers from 10 countries around the world on Sunday came together, started the 22nd International Volunteer Ecological Camp “Obedska Bara 2019”. As in previous years and decades, this camp is implemented by the NGO "Green View" from Kupinovo and Young Researchers of Serbia, sponsored by the Municipality of Pećinci and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Serbia, and partners in the project are the Tourist Organization of the Municipality of Pećinci, Provincial Institute for nature conservation, Provincial Secretariat for Urbanism and Environmental Protection and PE “Vojvodinašume”.

The importance of this camp is multiple because every year during the camp a large area of vegetation overgrown with invasive species is cleared along the Obedska bara, preserving wet meadows and open areas and waters that are habitats and bird feeders in this protected area.

Continuous work that has lasted for almost 3 decades has also had obvious results, as in the last few years several species were spotted many years after their disappearance:, the Black Ibis after more than 60 years, the Spoonbill after 30 years and the White Ibis, known as the Cattle Egret, that hasn’t been seen in Special Nature Reserve for more than 130 years.

This event was not just a promotion of the project, but also a working day for all event participants. Together with volunteers from Russia, Japan, Mexico, Spain, China, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Serbia, employees of PE “Vojvodinašume” and representatives of the mentioned institutions manually removed the vegetation on the future water body route, the area where pilot activity will be conducted in December.

News in national languages:

Croatia - Green Ring or Lonjsko Polje Nature Park Public Institution 

Slovenia - Public Institution Ljubljansko barje Nature Park 

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Center for Environment or Public Company National Park "Una"

Serbia - Institute for Nature Conservation of Vojvodina Province or Nature Conservation Movement Sremska Mitrovica or Public Enterprise „Vojvodinašume“

Germany - EuroNatur