The socio-economic pilot project for the further development of the future Transboundary Biosphere Reserve "Mura-Drava-Danube" (TBR MDD), also called the "Amazon of Europe" (AoE) shall use sustainable tourism to set noticeable incentives for the regional economy.

WWF Austria, in cooperation with EuroNatur is working on the establishment of a transboundary bike trail, the so-called "Amazon of Europe" Bike Trail, which will be realised by building on and enhancing existing routes in all 5 countries. Supported by Revital Integrative Environmental Planning, who develops the concept of the bike trail, the 2nd workshop of the “Amazon of Europe” Bike Trail took place in the municipality of Velika Polana, Slovenia.

A main part of this second workshop was to review the possibilities to valorise protected areas within the TBR MDD through the planned bike trail. Theresa Schiller from EuroNatur, together with Günter Mussnig (tourism expert from the National Park Hohe Tauern) supported with their detailed presentation this discussion and demonstrated how this could be put into practice.

The stakeholders from all 5 countries furthermore looked at the current bike route, the new cooperate design and AoE logo (which can be downloaded here), as well as the project status. The second block of the afternoon was then used to talk about possible funding opportunities and to discuss further steps of the project, in particular finding project partners for EU funded future projects.

The response of the participants was, as already in the first workshop in Koprivnica, very good and it was especially good to see that so many organisations would be willing and able to join in future projects to bring the “Amazon of Europe” Bike Trail to life. The 3rd and last stakeholder workshop will be held in Sombor, Serbia in June 2016 and will be organised with the kind logistical support of the City of Sombor.