Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD)-World’s first five-country biosphere reserve

Drava River (Image credit-Wikimedia commons)

Why in the news?

  • The UNESCO on September 15, 2021, designated Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) as the world’s first ‘five-country biosphere reserve’.

Which are the five countries?

  • The Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) biosphere reserve covers 700 kilometres of the Mura, Drava (Zagreb) 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.

What are objectives behind this move?

  • The new reserve “represented an important contribution to the European Green Deal and contributes to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy in the Mura-Drava-Danube region.”
  • 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.

What are the features of Mura-Drava- Danube (MDD) ?

  • 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.

About Drava river

  • The Drava is part of the EU’s Natura 2000 network of specially protected sites.
  •  From its source in Italy, the Drava is already under pressure of 22 hydropower plants, three of which are in the upper flow in Croatia.

(Source: DE)

JOIN GS TIMES IAS(UPSC) PRELIMS 365/15 ONLINE TEST SERIES GS-1 HINDI AND ENGLISH

JOIN GS TIMES IAS PRELIMS CURRENT AFFAIRS DAILY ONLINE TEST SERIES: HINDI AND ENGLISH

CLICK HERE DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZ FOR STATE CIVIL SERVICES

Written by 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *