Learning to work with the river

Georg Frank is the Project Manager for the Danube River Network of Protected Areas. In June 2009, the Danube River Network of Protected Areas was established. As a first step, the partnership expands the cooperation, coordination, consultation and strengthens links between the national administrations of protected areas of Danube riparian countries. These are aiming to enhance nature conservation and wise management of natural and cultural heritage in and beyond the boundaries of Protected Areas at the Danube River.

When did you start working on Danube-related issues and how?

After several years working for nature protection in forest habitats, beginning in 2003, I started my work in the Donau-Auen National Park in Austria as a project manager of the LIFE project "Restoration of the Danube river banks". The main task of this fascinating project was to remove the manmade embankment and the artificial "hard" structures on the Danube river banks in a pilot area 3 kilometers long. After successful implementation in 2005, for the first time since more than 100 years, a Danube river section here in the Upper Danube was unembankend. With great results: river dynamic has returned, enormous hydro-morphological processes have been restored, new habitats for characteristic and endangered animal and plant species have been established again. And the best news: these processes are still going on. So time after time I go there and enjoy these permanent changes caused by a "living" river.

How has the situation changed today compared to when you started?

The only stable aspect of a living river is its permanent change. Here in the Donau-Auen National Park I see the positive tendency that more and more key players - including sectors like navigation and water management - have learned to accept river dynamic as part of the game in the work on a river. Only recently side erosion began to be accepted as a positive change, serving e.g. for flood protection; large scale gravel islands are no longer seen as "lifeless deserts" and dead wood deposited by the river is seen more and more as an important structure. The pilot restoration projects were only the first steps in habitat restoration, but they changed the thinking of stakeholders.

But even more extensive have been the changes in the political and socio-economic sector in the Danube region over the last decades. I really appreciate to be (a very small) part of a process developing the Danube river more and more into a connecting link in South-East Europe, and leaving the separation aspects behind us.

What are the biggest opportunities or threats for the Danube, or both - depending on whether you are an optimist or a pessimist?

There is no other river in the world as international as the Danube - connecting many countries, cultures, people and bioregions. To develop the Danube as a connecting link in South-East Europe - this is definitely thrilling agenda and a great opportunity for all of us. As environmentalist, my main focus, of course, is on improving habitat connectivity and restoring and developing the Danube as a backbone for characteristic species. I trust that The Danube River Network of Protected Areas - my main job challenge at the moment - can contribute significantly to this task. But this project doesn´t connect exclusively habitats and species - new friendships with partners in all Danube countries have strongly strengthened my personal relationship with the Danube.