Cold War, ethnic strife protected Balkan river biosphere

Sep 17, 2009, 16:47 GMT

Karanac, Croatia/Vienna - In a protected floodland forest where the Danube divides Croatia and Serbia, visitors cruise streams to spot eagles and other rare birds.

But what they are likely to notice first are the numerous red signs warning of land mines.

The signs stand in the Kopacki wetlands in Croatia, part of a zone spread among five countries along the Danube, Drava and Mura rivers where a rich biosphere has remained largely untouched, first as a Cold-War border, and later as a no-go zone during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.

Hungary's Environment Minister Imre Szabo and Croatian Culture Minister Bozo Biskupic agreed Thursday to set up a cross-border protection zone as a first step towards having the area designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

The non-governmental World Wildlife Fund and local environmentalists hope Austria, Slovenia and Serbia will also join, creating Europe's largest river reserve, covering over 710,000 hectares.

The Kopacki wetlands in eastern Croatia are at the core of this zone. They are located in a triangular area bordered by Hungary in the north and Serbia in the east, where the Drava joins the Danube.

From 1991 until 1997, the area was under Serbian control, from the time when Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia through the armed conflicts in the disintegrating multi-ethnic state.

Animals in the Kopacki wetlands are oblivious to the fact that remaining Serb mines have been protecting them from logging, farming and other human activities that could endanger their habitats.

On a morning earlier this summer, a wild boar ate clams along a riverbank, while nearby, a great white egret, a type of heron, stood still in the water. In the background, large groups of black cormorants perched on dead trees.

Soon afterwards, a white-tailed eagle soared above the river's surface.

'It is the densest population in Central Europe that we know of,' local ecological activist Tibor Mikuska said of the eagles.

Mikuska explained that after World War II, Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito used Kopacki as a state hunting ground, which also helped to protect it.

In addition, during the Cold War, the stretch of the Drava separating Hungary and Yugoslavia served as the outer border of the Warsaw Pact countries, the former defense treaty that included all European Communist countries except Yugoslavia.

As a member of the Croatian Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature, Mikuska is part of a group of activists who campaign for the multi-national UNESCO biosphere reserve.

'There is a tendency to see rivers as borders, and we are opposed to that,' he said. 'A biosphere reserve means a higher level of protection but also better communication between all sides.'

When it comes to protecting wildlife, cross-border cooperation is already underway. In a joint programme with Hungarian colleagues, Croatian biologists study white-tailed eagles.

Croatian environmentalists also hope that a biosphere reserve would halt projects by the Regional Development, Forest and Water Ministry to regulate the Danube and Drava rivers in an attempt to prevent flooding.

'This new plan is a further big attempt of the ministry to transform the natural river course into a uniform canal,' Irma Popovic of the group Green Action said, arguing that side arms, sand banks and river islands would suffer.

In an e-mail to the German Press Agency dpa, the ministry denied it was damaging the river ecosystem. 'These technical and economic watercourses maintenance activities are not harmful to the environment and nature,' it said.

Mikuska, who is also opposed to the river construction, said it was important to protect the ecosystem and use it in a sustainable way for tourism, providing income for the local population.

'In banking terms, we would like to live off the interest, not the capital,' he said.