Save The Mura

River and floodplain restoration

Benefits of restoration

Despite outstanding natural features, protection status and international commitments, the Mura-Drava-Danube area is suffering from an ongoing degradation of habitats and loss of endangered species in the river and floodplain areas (e.g. sturgeons, white-tailed eagle, black stork, softwood forests). A century of river channelling, the construction of dikes, the extraction of gravel and sand, as well as the construction of hydropower plants led to a loss of up to 80% of the former floodplain areas and the alteration of about 1,100 km of natural river banks and associated stretches. The situation can only improve if the characteristic natural conditions are restored. In addition to conserving biodiversity, restoration would also entail multiple benefits for flood protection, water purification (and thus healthy drinking water), favourable groundwater conditions, fish stocks, small scale agriculture and forestry and recreation for local people.

WWF published a Restoration Potential Study in 2013 to prove how much can be restored in the "Amazon of Europe".

Moreover, the following river restoration projects (most of them funded under the EU Life programme) are currently being carried out or have been already implemented in the area:


Other examples of good practice in river restoration can be found on the upper Drava and Mura in Austria:


For more information on the river restoration projects, please see the downloads on the right.