The winter descent for the preservation of the Drava River, organized by the Rafting Club Matis, in cooperation with ZEUS and WWF Adria, took place this Saturday. The event also highlighted the importance to better conserve our rivers.

The Mura, Drava and Danube form a 700-kilometer long green belt that connects nearly 1,000,000 hectares of one of Europe’s most important riverine areas. Also known as the "Amazon of Europe", the future 5-country UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve "Mura-Drava-Danube" is under more and more pressure due to the building of dikes, river regulation and the construction of hydropower plants. This threatens the survival of the natural parts of the river, so many animal and plant species, especially endemic ones, have difficulties to adapt to the changes in water quantity, flow velocity and temperature of the river.

“In addition to drawing attention to the preservation of the river Drava, the goal of this action is to get local people better acquainted with their river so they can better protect it. It means a lot to us that a large number of young people joined us today, as this is a great way for all to spend more time in nature and to learn about the threats and the protection of our Drava river,” says the organizer of the descent, Nikola Želimorski from the Rafting Club Matis.

More than 200 kayakers and rafters from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary paddled the old course of the Drava to Donja Dubrava, where also an exhibition of photographs by Goran Šafarek was organized.