The twelfth symposium “Kopački Rit – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” brought together numerous Croatian scientists and nature lovers from Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Osijek.

The programme of the event included around eighty presentations, which is the largest number of papers submitted to date. This confirms the growing interest of scientists and experts, public institutions in the fields of nature conservation and health, public companies and associations from Croatia and abroad in the topics of this symposium. The main topics of the symposium are biodiversity, ecology and the protection of the Kopački Rit Nature Park, as well as a multidisciplinary approach from various fields of environmental protection in the wider Baranja region and Croatia.

The “Josip Juraj Strossmayer” Water Institute was among the many organisers of the symposium this year.

At the opening of the symposium, the director of the Institute, Mario Šiljeg, emphasised, among other things, the importance of Kopački Rit as a “nature-based solution” in the fight against climate change, i.e. the increasingly frequent flooding in this area. The park is an ideal example of a so-called “NBS – nature-based solution”, which can also serve as a sponge for excess water. To fully fulfil this purpose, projects to restore old watercourses need to be promoted and implemented, which will contribute to a positive impact on biodiversity and wider protection of this valuable area. In Croatia, in addition to Kopački Rit, Lonjsko Polje also serves the same purpose, which is certainly a valuable national resource. He also emphasised that thanks to EU funding, the park has finally been completely demined and that significant progress has been made in removing non-native plant species and introducing native species.

The organisation of the symposium was also supported by three international associations: the Network of Protected Areas along the Danube, the Balkan Environmental Association and the International Association of Scientists and Professionals for Environmental Protection.