It was only in that year when documentation of this floodplain treasure began. In 1993, the Slovak government declared it an internationally important Ramsar wetland. This natural landscape, some 2,000 years old and extensively used, is one of the most valuable floodplain areas, forming a mosaic of old hardwood floodplain forests, reed beds and oxbow lakes, and with the largest complex of floodplain meadows in Central Europe (in total 3,500 hectares).

It was in June 1996 at the 10th Task Force meeting of the Danube Environmental Programme that the Morava-Dyje floodplain was selected as a pilot region for transboundary wetland restoration. It then was decided to give EU-Phare financial support within the Strategic Action Plan Implementation Programme. Under the co-ordination of WWF (using Zinke Environment Consulting), this should – for the first time – aim at practising integrated co-operation of local expert agencies with various scientists and environmental groups.

Apart from changed land use, the last 30 years saw various river engineering interventions. The canalised river bed incised, resulting in local groundwater deepening and a drying out of wetland biotopes. In the middle of the 1990s, the Czech State Forests at Zidlochovice started rescue irrigation in their dying oak forests along the lower Dyje River. For the EU-Phare project, the Herdy Forest was chosen; being a 550 hectare floodplain area near the Liechtenstein Palace at Lednice. The international expert team soon agreed that only comprehensive restoration measures can lead to a lasting improvement.

Until, however, the extremely complicated ownership rights are clarified and new restoration concepts are produced, a pilot action was undertaken: the excavation of a strongly silted-up forest channel over 3.2 km. Since spring 1999, already 250 ha of forest have again been supplied with water.

A second expert team started in 1998 to prepare a large-scale improvement of the water distribution between the Dyje River and the Herdy area. This aims at making this wetland again accessible for spawning of migrating fish. These plans, completed in October 1999, suggest a spacious fish pass-way within the city of Breclav as well as the re-connection of the Herdy water bodies with the Dyje River.

There is another task which, yet, only belonged to river engineers: the regeneration of river stretches and their meanders. New plans for the re-connection of various meanders with the river were produced for the mouth of the Dyje River and further up the Morava up to Hodonin in the south-east Czech Republic, as well as for the Lower Morava in Slovakia. There are already four Slovak Morava meanders, where the re-opening some years ago resulted in a continued depositing of sediments. Scientific investigations of the Water Research Institute (VÚVH) in Bratislava showed that the narrow in- and outlets of meanders ceased the river’s transport capacity. Comprehensive computer simulations and the testing of restoration models – in a physical river model at a scale of 1:60 – lead again local and EU experts to conclusions for the Morava-Dyje region which open a completely new perspective: as half-hearted, partial restorations of meanders and the new river bed only cause new problems and costs they recommend as a reasonable solution for the river’s hydrology, morphology and ecology, the complete derivation of the Morava into its old meanders.

This is needed and feasible for several river sections, and it would improve flood protection, as the straightened river bed will still exist. It is an advantage that Austria is presently also undertaking a large-scale floodplain restoration programme, supported by EU-Life. Therefore, bi- and trilateral expert meetings of the Phare and Life teams made possible the first intensive exchange of data and experiences. Joint finding is the need for a transboundary restoration strategy (which was drafted already during the Phare project) and joint river projects in the Morava-Dyje region.

For decades, such a step was beyond imagination on these border rivers but now it could become a signal for river management throughout the Danube basin. Soon, the new EU-Water Framework Directive will prescribe such a co-operation in river systems. Teun Botterweg, head of the Danube PCU in Vienna, is convinced that the Morava-Dyje region will become a model for its implementation: as a region, where management of nature goes beyond borders.
(Source: aqua press Int. 06/99)
Alexander Zinke

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