Project partners and associated partners of the lifelineMDD project have teamed up to visit restoration sites in the 5-country Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube. The first part of the trip took the representatives of 16 institutions to Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary from 16th to 18th of May. Due to the pandemic and the online-format of most workshops so far, the study visit was the first chance for the partners from five different countries to finally meet in person.

The first destination of the tour was Austria. Seeing the development of the Mura river at Mureck and Sicheldorf after the conduction of previous restoration measures rose the expectations for the lifelineMDD pilot restoration site at Gosdorf. During the visit of the pilot measure the construction works were already ongoing.

The bank protection at the pilot restoration measure at the Slovenian Mura river in Hrastje-Mota was already removed and the construction works finished. This improved the natural dynamics of the river and hopefully in the future diverse river structures will be formed. A sand martin colony and a pair of kingfishers already found a new breeding site. Besides the pilot restoration site, an oxbow restoration in Petanjci and the River school in Velika Polana were visited in Slovenia.

The visit of Lankóc forest in Hungary gave an impression on how water retention in the floodplain forest and wet meadows can be improved. Day three of the study visit started with a Tamarisk tour in Prelog, Croatia. The German Tamarisk (Myricaria germanica) is an indicator species for dynamic rivers and high efforts were undertaken during the Drava Life project to resettle the genetically adapted Tamarisks at Drava river.

The grand finale of the first part of this field trip was the visit of the Mura-Drava confluence, as well as the the steep bank at Libanovec. Innovative measures were undertaken to conserve this nesting spot for around 1000 breeding pairs of sand martins.

Project partners and associated partners of the lifelineMDD project have met again on the second part of the joint study visit within the TBR MDD, organized between 14th and 15th of June. The project pilot site in Serbia and other good examples of river restoration and important areas of the TBR MDD in Croatia, Serbia and Hungary were visited.

The pilot site in Serbia is near the town Karađorđevo, where reconstruction work was done on the Lovrenac canal. The pilot implementation in Serbia serves as a basis and good practice of cross-sectoral cooperation of nature conservation institute, water management and forestry services. Moreover, in Serbia also visited the Special Nature Reserve Gornje Podunavlje was visited, which is also the location of the Karapandža River School with its educational walking path and a boat ride on the Bajski canal. One highlight of this trip was seeing White-tailed eagles, which are one of the most characteristic birds of that area.

In Hungary the Liberty Island on the Danube River in Mohács was visited by boat, which is a great example of habitat restoration in the frame of a former project. In Croatia the Project partners and associated parted visited one of the most attractive tourist points in the area of the TBR MDD, the Nature Park Kopački rit. The Nature Park is one of the most important and largest preserved wetlands in Europe and has a great number of typical species connected to wetland habitats.

Overall the study visit gave the opportunity to exchange experience in river revitalization with a variety of different habitat restoration measures undertaken in the frame of other projects like Natura Mura, coopMDD, DRAVA LIFE, WISEDRAVALIFE and DRA-MUR-CI, as well as seeing the pilot restoration sites of the lifelineMDD project. Moreover, the participants had a chance to form great connections, which will be an advantage for the upcoming projects in our amazing TBR MDD.

(Text prepared by PP IRSNC)