FLAGSHIPS

Network; ongoing

The Danube WILDisland RRI is intended as the first river-focused Ramsar Regional Initiative in Europe to foster international and cross-sector cooperation and natural river and island protection, at the world´s most international river. The Initiative is intended as a long-term collaborative effort between countries and entities for the entire Danube Region, the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, intergovernmental institutions, international non-governmental organisations, and national institutions specialised in wetland issues, and finally, Danube protected areas, which aims to ensure the effective conservation of wetlands and the wise use of their resources, values, and services within the framework of the Ramsar Convention. It will strive to provide practical means for international cooperation and support for an effective implementation of the Ramsar Convention and its Strategic Plan in the Danube Region, for improving the visibility of the Ramsar Convention and wetland-related issues of common concern through voluntary international cooperation at the regional level and, in particular, involving all relevant national and regional stakeholders.

It will assist the participating Member States to further advance the goals and adhere to their obligations related to wetlands conservation in the frame of the Ramsar Convention. The RRI will strive to mobilise political support, to strengthen the Danube as an ecological corridor connecting more bio-geographic regions than any other corridor in Europe, and to act as an example of best practices for the establishment of European Green and Blue Infrastructure.

Process; ongoing (The Task Forces exist as long the activities can be carried out. In the past, some Task Forces were closed, but new ones emerged as well. It is a dynamic process.)

EUSDR Priority Area 6 deals with a variety of topics, all of which have to do with the protection and preservation of our natural resources. We cannot manage these tasks alone. For this reason, PA 6 from the beginning put great emphasis on the involvement of stakeholders, experts and enthusiasts who wanted to work with us to implement the objectives of the EUSDR Action Plan. This has resulted in the establishment of a number of working groups, the PA 6 Task Forces. Here, representatives of civil society, academia and authorities gather to jointly define goals and implement their own work programme. In this way, existing knowledge and experience is pooled and integrated into the governance of the EUSDR. This process is a central element of PA 6 and therefore an EUSDR Flagship that explicitly involves all current six PA 6 Task Forces.