Every year around June 29, the Danube Protection Commission calls for activities in all Danube countries. Austria is one of 19 Danube countries celebrating Danube Day and the LIFE WILDisland will be among the highlights in 2022!
As a grand-opening of the celebrations in Austria, the LIFE WILDisland project hosted a boat tour on June 13, 2022. A total of five boats with 50 students paddled the stretch from Fischamend to Haslau to experience the Danube and its beauty.
The students got to hear more about how the LIFE WILDisland project unites the efforts of eight countries and several partners from hydropower, waterways, forestry and nature conservation sectors to jointly restore the Danube WILDisland habitat corridor all the way from Germany to Romania. The youngsters managed to meet some of the amazing animals and plants and experience real WILDislands along the way. Furthermore, the student collected 10 bags of trash from the banks of the Danube in attempt to contribute to their conservation and well-being.
Additionally, over the next two days, June 14-15, 2022, schoolchildren have the opportunity to deepen and test their knowledge of the Danube at five interactive stations in the schlossORTH National Park Center in the Donau-Auen National Park. The young researchers had the chance to get to the bottom of the mystery of the "mumbling mussels", to get to the bottom of water plants by "smelling, tasting, dripping and bubbling", to solve a criminal case involving a water flea and a water hose, as well as to get to the bottom of the flight logic of dragonflies.
The aim of the annual Danube Day is to offer children and young people the opportunity to intensively engage with the Danube habitat and to anchor awareness for the sustainable protection of this valuable natural jewel.
You can find more about the programme of the event in Austria here.
The schedule of the celebrations Danube-wide can be found here.
