A five-country nomination for the Mura-Drava-Danube biosphere reservation, also called the European Amazon, has been sent to UNESCO, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Monday.
The joint nomination by Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia was sent on September 30 and is the last step in a procedure to declare the world's first five-state biosphere reservation.
Once confirmed by UNESCO, the exceptional river landscape of the Mura, Drava and the Danube, which spreads over an area of 930,000 hectares from Austria to Serbia, will become the world's first biosphere reservation run by five countries, the WWF said.
The three rivers, which flow through the five countries, form a 700-kilometre green belt and connect more than 930,000 hectares of unique land with significant natural and cultural heritage.
The reservation's core and buffer area spread over 280,000 hectares of land and include 13 protected areas and are surrounded by 650,000 hectares of transitional land. Rare flood forests, sandbanks, river islands and backwaters form a unique river and cultural landscape.
The European Amazon is home to Europe's largest population of the white-tailed sea eagle as well as many other endangered animal species and is an important area for more than 250,000 migratory birds.
Close to 900,000 people depend on the Mura, Drava and Danube. Flood areas protect settlements from floods and enable the supply of drinking water while exceptional river landscapes increase the potential for sustainable tourism, the WWF said.
Cross-border cooperation is a strong indicator of closer regional cooperation with the aim of protecting nature. Work on the joint nomination is an example of inter-state cooperation on an important issue, said Petra Remeta of the WWF.
(Hina)
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