The declaration was signed in Zagreb by representatives of institutions that manage protected areas along the Sava River from its spring to the Danube estuary, taking on responsibility to preserve biological diversity through cross-border cooperation in line with sustainable development in an effort to enhance Europe's natural resources and cultural heritage.
The importance of preserving a good ecological situation along the Sava and its flood lands due to climate change was underscored, as well as the need to implement projects to renew modified sections of the river's path and to utilise natural flood retention areas as a method of flood protection.
Assistant Environment Protection Minister Nenad Strizrep said that as witnesses of disastrous flooding in the region we need to be more aware of the role of wetlands as natural retention areas for flood protection.