Danube STREAM - Interdisciplinary cooperation for the Danube River - DANUBEparksCONNECTED and Danube STREAM bring together nature conservation and waterway management
06-05-2017
The Interreg Danube Transnational Programme is an important platform for the cross-sectoral cooperation along the Danube River. In the framework of the interdisciplinary conference on 26th-27th April in Dunakiliti (Hungary), representatives of various interest groups set new initiatives on the interface of river morphology and waterway management.
The Danube Protected Areas play a key role in the preservation and protection of Europe´s natural heritage. The Danube River Network of Protected Areas is now implementing the DANUBEparksCONNECTED project which promotes the further development of the Danube as ecological corridor. With the project Danube STREAM, the Danube waterway administrations aim to develop their ecologically sound waterway maintenance work. Consequently, cross-over cooperation is needed to avoid conflicts, to develop good practices in the management, and to identify options to create win-win situations in the daily work on the spot.
On 26th April, Péter Pető, Vice President of the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Council and the Fertő Hanság National Park as host opened the conference. Key note speeches from policy (Balázs Horváth, EUSDR Priority Area Coordinator Water Quality Priority Area 4) and programme level (Gusztáv Csomor, Joint Secretariat Danube Transnational Programme) prepared the framework and stressed the importance of cross-over capitalization. Good practices were presented by several speakers from both sectors.
The second day was dedicated to intense workshops to jointly elaborate standards for ecologically sound waterway maintenance and to discuss fields of cooperation for the development of the WILDisland initiative, aiming to foster the conservation of Danube Islands in their function as stepping stones within the Danube Habitat Corridor.
The fruitful conference resulted in the statement of both transnational projects to further intensify the future cooperation. Guiding questions were elaborated as base for meetings on national level which will take place in each Danube country until the end of this year. Additionally, a roadmap was defined to boost the document for waterway maintenance and the WILDisland initiative, including a follow-up conference (May 2018 in Serbia, organized by Danube STREAM), a stakeholder consultation (2019, Vienna) and a joint meeting on Director´s level to adopt joint interests and follow-up activities.
The inspiring contributions by another DTP project, the Danube Sediment, lead to the agreement to establish a closer cooperation in the framework of the cross-over capitalization process launched by the Danube Transnational Programme among all these projects.
Finally, the field trip to the Szigetköz area, managed by the Fertő Hanság National Park Directorate, gave inspiration for more than 50 participants. Both, the DANUBEparksCONNECTED and the Danube STREAM project team thank all speakers and participants for their pro-active and valuable contributions and the hosts for their hospitality and the perfect organization.
Georg Frank (DANUBEparksCONNECTED) and Gert-Jan Muilerman (Danube STREAM)
