Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD)

Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD)

Subject – Environment

Context – UNESCO declares world’s first 5-country biosphere reserve in ‘Amazon of Europe’

Concept –

• The UNESCO September 15, 2021, designated Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) as the world’s first ‘five-country biosphere reserve’, according to a statement by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature.
• The biosphere reserve covers 700 kilometres of the Mura, Drava and Danube rivers and stretches across Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.
• The total area of the reserve — a million hectares — in the so-called ‘Amazon of Europe’, makes it the largest riverine protected area on the continent.
• The strategy’s aim is to revitalise 25,000 km of rivers and protect 30 per cent of the European Union’s land area by 2030.
• MDD’s recognition “was a mandate to all five countries to jointly advance the protection and revitalisation of the Mura-Drava-Danube area and boost sustainable business practices”.
• The reserve is home to floodplain forests, gravel and sand banks, river islands, oxbows and meadows.
• It is home to continental Europe’s highest density of breeding white-tailed eagle (more than 150 pairs), as well as endangered species such as the little tern, black stork, otters, beavers and sturgeons.
• It is also an important annual resting and feeding place for more than 250,000 migratory birds, according to WWF. Almost 900,000 people live in the biosphere reserve.
• Additional projects for nature and people are already being implemented in the area. They have a combined funding of around 20 million Euros and are co-financed by the European Union.
• These projects put river revitalisation, sustainable business practices enhancing cross-border cooperation into focus.
• One such project is the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme-funded Amazon of Europe Bike Trail, a long-distance cycling trail following the Mura, Drava and Danube river landscapes for over 1,250 km.

About Biosphere Reserve:

• Biosphere Reserve (BR) is a designation by UNESCO for representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over large areas of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a combination of both.
• Biosphere Reserves tries to balance economic and social development and maintenance of associated cultural values along with the preservation of nature.
• It has three-part structure:
  • Core areas: It is most protected area of a biosphere reserve and free from human interference. It may contain endemic plants and animals.
  • Buffer Zone: It is around the core areas and help in the protection of core areas. Some activities like restoration, limited tourism, fishing, grazing, research and educational activities etc. are allowed.
  • Transition zone: It is the zone of cooperation where human activities and conservation are done in harmony (Ex- settlements, croplands, managed forests and areas for intensive recreation and other economic uses etc. are done).

Biosphere Reserves in India