An educational dive into wetlands of the European Green Belt

How interesting is research on the European Green Belt? On the occasion of this year’s World Wetlands Day, primary school children took chances to discover this question. Their curiosity seemed endless.

On February 4th, the Public Institution for management of protected parts of nature and ecological network of Virovitica-Podravina County (PI VPC), Croatia, welcomed the school children for a workshop at the Informative educational center-hostel. Here, Tatjana Arnold Sabo, principal of the PI VPC presented the “DaRe to Connect-project“ and took the children on an educational dive to tell the “The Drava Story“. With its focus on wetland research, PI VPC presented the importance of wetlands and their role for biodiversity conservation.

The Drava River is a highly significant wetland area flowing through five countries in southern Central Europe and is located on the European Green Belt. The pupils learned about flooded forests, five endemic fish species, important birds, mammals and butterflies of this wetland area. Together with Tatjana Lesić, a senior associate and team member of PI VPC in the DaRe to Connect-project, the children reflected on what wetland ecosystem services are about and how they work. In the end, the pupils created ten rules on how to protect the Drava River and made posters to illustrate the biodiversity of the Drava River. A special guest of the workshop was Marko Bičanić, a fish-warden, who introduced everyone into important fishing rules and regulations. At the end of the day, the children were full of new impressions. 

The project is funded by the EU-Interreg-Project DaRe to Connect “Supporting Danube Region's ecological Connectivity by linking Natura 2000 areas along the Green Belt “ - DTP-007-2-3.