Riparian forests are among the most dynamik and threatened forest in Europe. In the Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve they are manged for nature conservation, sustainable management for all ecosystem services, intensive short-rotation and monoculture forestry focused on the production of large amounts of timber or energy-related biomass. The current composition and structure of riparian forests reflects a variety of historical and recent anthropogenic disturbances. Land use changes have resulted in remarkable reduction and fragmentation of forest cover.
