The meandering Sava river originates in the Alps, winds its way through Slovenia and Croatia and flows into the Danube at Belgrade. During flooding events the Sava river rises to ten meters above normal and floods 600 kilometers of meadows, pastures and woodlands. However, quite in contrast to other river floodings there are no disaster warnings since the Save floodplain serves as a natural protection against floodwaters. It absorbs the melt waters from the mountains and thus buffers the discharge of the flood wave. The Sava floodplains represent an integral part of flood control strategies in Croatia. Where these natural flooded areas have remained intact one can find White storks, Spoonbills and White-tailed eagles. Otters find sufficient feeding habitats along the side-arms and ox-bows of the river. The international conservation foundation EuroNatur is intensively involved in achieving protection for this 'amphibious landscape'. There have been some successes: The Croatian parliament has designated the Lonjsko Polje as a nature park. Due to the war in former Yugoslavia there have been delays in establishing the protected area but despite the difficult situation some positive steps have been taken.
Within the scope of implementing tourism master plans for Croatia and Montenegro, the German Society for Investment and Development (DEG) has financed four pilot projects. EuroNatur has coordinated one of these projects, namely the drafting of the Regional Master Plan for the natural park Lonjsko Polje and the Posavina. In cooperation with experts from CREATOP, a basis for tourism development of the natural park Lonjsko Polje was established. Already 50 accommodations are offered in old log houses along the Sava River, offering tourists the unique possibility to stay in a stork village.
The Regional Master Plan for the Sava River Floodplains is available in German (pdf-file 3,8 MB) or Croatian (pdf-file 3,7 MB). The English translation (pdf-file 2,42 MB) was published in the bulletin of the Natural Park Lonjsko Polje and has been distributed to all households in the park.
In 1999, Croatian Waters received $0.5mio from the World Bank in order to establish an updated report on the old flood protection project "Sava River 2000" dating from 1972. EuroNatur acted as international partner for Croatia in implementing this important project for the future of the Sava River floodplains. Based on the analyses, in 1,5 years a new ecological approach to improve the flood control system was elaborated; the protected retention plains and floodplains in the Zagreb area along the Central Sava Basin and its affluents Kupa, Odra and Lonja were doubled from 59.000 ha to 117.000 ha, a surface twice the size of Lake Constance!
The joint publications of EuroNatur and Croatian Waters on occasion of the "River Restoration" Congress in Waagening/Netherlands can be downloaded here: Floodprotection 2001, pdf-file (308 kb).
EuroNatur warns against the project of building the Danube-Sava River Canal in Croatia for involving an immense destruction of natural habitat. This canal is planned to be 61,4 km long and would engulf around 600 million euros.