Erstellt am: 28. 6. 2011 - 11:51 Uhr
The "Amazon of Europe" Under Threat
With a shriek of excitement and a little splash, 10-year old Merlin fishes something out of the shallow muddy water at Kopacki Rit wetlands in Croatia. "A crayfish!" he announces with triumph. But conservationist Tibor Mikuska is unimpressed. "North American shrimp ," he replies, looking disgusted. "Lucky that it is dead."
What seems at first like a shocking outburst anti-Americanism, turns out to be an expression of justified alarm at what is happening to the delicate wetlands, one of Europe´s biodiversity treasure troves. The alien species, imported and bred for consumption in fish farms, has escaped and is now aggressively shoving aside native species in one of Europe`s most important fish-spawning areas. The same is true of other foreign fish sorts which were introduced into the nearby rivers by enthusiasts of sport angling who wanted a more exotic catch.
chris cummins
But in this is just one of the many problems facing an area that the WWF has dubbed the "Amazon of Europe." Despite promises to protect the area, Croatia is planning to regulate 111km of the Drava river just upstream of the Kopacki Rit wetlands. Although the Environmental Impact Assessment has not yet been completed, the first boulders have appeared on the sandy banks, blocking the natural meandering of the living river. The process, which basically puts the river in a straight-jacket, is meant to guarantee that barges carrying cargo can navigate the river all year round without being hindered by natural changes in depth that come with a river's annual cycle. This heavy-handed industrial form of river regulation which conservationists call "out-dated" will cost millions of Euros, and comes as countries in western Europe are spending millions to remove such boulders to restore rivers to their natural state.
Martin Schneider-Jacoby from Euronature says the Croatian plans are absurd and cynical. He says that the project is just a way to channel public money to "a small group of profiteers in Croatia". Goran Safarek, a Croatian conservationist and photographer, claims that the same people who plan the projects are often also the owners of the private building companies that will carry out the river engineering. Besides, says Tibor Mikuska, who is based in the area of the Kopacki Rid, the cargo boats are coping perfectly well with the river in its natural unregulated state.
True, admits Mikuska, a “drunken captain runs into a sandbank and has to be tugged out" once in a while, "but that happens everywhere.”
mario romulic
If the rivers are forced into channels the water can longer spread out through the low-lying wetland forests at times of flood to create the sort of conditions biodiversity needs to thrive.
"It's a scandal," complains Arno Mohl, who is coordinating the WWF's Mura-Drava-Danube project. He says the engineering work will destroy some of Europe`s most spectacular landscape and important biodiversity nurseries without "bringing any real economic benefit to the region." Jasmin Sadikovic, from Green Osijek, is running an eco-lodge in the region trying to educate local children about what a natural jewel they have nearby. But he says if the plans aren’t scrapped straight away that jewel might have disappeared before the children reach adulthood. “The water will be less and less and they will be dry lands very soon.”
chris cummins
The area is under existential threat at precisely the moment when conservationists should be breathing a sigh of relief at the genesis of an unprecedented cross-border project to protect Europe`s natural riverscape. This March, Croatian jointly agreed with Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia to create a transboundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve project.
It`s the first time anywhere in the world that 5 nations have signed up to this kind of conservation co-operation and, in theory, the plan should protect a 700 kilometre stretch of Europe`s most spectacular riverbank environment including stretches of the Danube, Drava and Mura rivers.
Arno Mohl says the abundant biodiversity harboured within this zone is unparalleled outside the tropical rainforests - hence the comparison with the Amazon. But he says the Croatian plans to engineer the river within this biosphere make a mockery of the agreement. "The commitment to protect this area would not be worth more than the paper it is written on if these plans are executed," he says.
A visit to the Kopacki Rit wetlands, which are on the doorstep of the Croatian town of Osijek, makes it clear what we stand to lose. The marshy triangle where the Drava meets the Danube even looks a bit like the Amazon.
Willows lean over the edges of muddy banks casting shadows on the slow moving water . The roots of the trees are exposed through the mud banks and, lit by the sun, look like skeletal rib-cages. These provide handy perches for the thousands of birds that either make their home here or pass through -the wetlands are a stopping point for a quarter of a million migrating birds.
wwf
On an hour long boat trip with Tibor Mikuska and Martin Schneider-Jacoby, I see dozens of rare birds as we slowly chug up the brown channel. There are heron, standing straight backed and proud like a sentries guarding the river. A cormorant takes fright at the boat and takes off flying so low over the water that every flap of its wings cast ripples on the surface of the river like oar strokes of a rowing boat. There are rare river turtles basking in the sun. They were once hunted almost to extinction but are making a healthy comeback in the nature park and seem oblivious to the danger of a white-tailed eagle that is circling above. The eagle is a member of the largest remaining colony in Europe - 50 pairs spread out along the banks of this protected area.
mario romulic
The park is the most important tourist attraction in eastern Croatia, where the economy is still suffering the after-effects of the ruinous civil war that swept through the area 20 years ago. Osijek was one of the most shelled towns in Croatia and the haunted name of Vukovar appears on the road signs on the edge of the park. Kopacki Rit, which was named as one of Croatia`s must-see attractions in the latest edition of the Lonely Planet, has given hope to the depressed economy with rustically charming bed-and breakfast springing up, and restaurants serving delicious red soup made from pike-perch fish from the rivers and spiced with paprika. If the wetlands turn into drylands those industries will die too.
But Jasmin Sadikovic from Green Osijek says the wetlands bring more than just tourism revenue. They regulates the groundwater for agriculture and, by breaking down harmful bacteria, they act as a natural sewage works, proving the local communities with quality drinking water.
The same is true an area also under threat from Croatian river engineering plans. Upstream from Kopacki Rit is the confluence where the muddy waters of the Mura flow into the crystal clear Drava. It's another stunning area of natural beauty where the old forests are decked in cloaks of mist in the morning and where it is no rarity to see red deer swim from bank to bank. Once again the engineering plans are being sold on the pretext of flood protection and once again the conservationists reject this argument.
chris cummins
This is where Goran Safarek is based. The young biologist, who has already taken part in an expedition to the real Amazon, is passionate about his stretch of the Amazon of Europe. He says the most effective precautions against flooding is to leave the rivers in their natural state because such landscapes offer natural flood protection. The high water breaches the banks and empty into the meadows and forests which can safely accommodate huge amounts of water which they then slowly release back into the river system.
He says that the nearby illegal gravel dredging, carried out openly and apparently with impunity, is also threatening the local economy by deepening the rivers. This process, he explains, forces the ground water levels deeper down and scientists say this means that crops will be over reliant on rainfall rather than aquifers, leaving local farmers liable to dead crops and huge losses during dry spells. Goran says that there is so much money involved in the engineering and gravel business that powerful lobbies have grown up that make it hard for the environmentalists to be heard.
Conservationists see the industrial regulation of the rivers, funded by Croatian taxpayers, as a reversal of the Robin Hood legend. Money is taken from the little man to line rich men`s pockets with the local population ultimately losing out. So why do they tolerate it? Goran has a theory. “It`s a throw back to the socialist days when development meant building something." Even if science says the opposite is true in this case.
There are more threats to the rivers. Pollution is a constant concern. From the banks you can sometimes see plastic bags float by like nefarious jellyfish. Agricultural run-off is causing problems with algae and last year toxic sludge reached the Danube after an accident at an aluminium plant in Hungary.
chris cummins
Near the banks of the Croatian Danube, I watch the fiery local soup being simmered in a cauldron over a crackling outside fire. I ask the cook, Ivo, if he is worried about the pollution getting so bad that the fish are no longer edible. "We do worry, of course," he says, looking serious, but then he breaks into infectious laughter "but I like to let the green people worry for me."
The conservationists are indeed worrying away. Despite the political fan-fare back in March, the 5-nation protection zone is yet to prove its worth. But the WWF's Arno Mohl remains cautiously optimistic as we survey a Hungarian stretch of the Drava. We're standing atop a sandbank where sand-martins are busily burrowing.”The agreement in March was a good start,” he says, “but the real work starts here.”
chris cummins