REFOCuS – Resilient Riparian Forests in the Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve

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200206687

Riparian forests are threatened by environmental changes, unsustainable human activities, increased incidence of native and non-native pests and diseases as well as non-native plant species. This also affects natural regeneration of such forests. In addition, proper planting material is lacking while legislative limitations for transfer between countries are hindering the use of ecologically suitable forest reproductive material (FRM). The REFOCuS project aims to counteract this state by developing a holistic strategy for both managed and protected forests, comprising appropriate silvicultural methods, conservation strategies and an international system that will aid identification of pests and diseases in riparian forests. A consortium of five partner and six associate partner institutions from research, forestry and conservation are jointly taking on this task. The study area is the transnational Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve, recently extended to an area of nearly 850,000 ha in Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. The entire core zone of this important ecological corridor - a belt of riparian forests along the three rivers - has been designated as part of the Natura 2000 framework.