Riparian forests stand as a tribute to cultural landscapes of the past, and serve as flood protection for the future.

"Where else in Europe do highly natural oak stands extend over 200,000 hectares in the floodplains, and where else has their water regime remained as undisturbed as here? Not only from an economic point of view, but also with regard to science, these forests, hardly touched by man, are of extraordinary value."

The landscape described in this quotation from a 1974 publication by Horvat, Ellenberg and Glavac, 'Vegetation of Southeast-Europe', is still the same today. The Central Sava Basin includes the largest complex of alluvial hardwood forests of oak and ash not only in Europe but in the Western Palaearctic.

The quote further served to inspire a workshop marking the International Year of Forests and the 40th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands with its theme 'Forests for Water and Wetlands'. The three-day workshop held in June brought together 26 experts from the region to the headquarters of Lonjsko Polje Nature Park. Discussions included natural determinants of freshwater, tree-dominated wetlands, riparian hardwood forests as an essential attribute of organically evolved cultural landscapes as well as the role of those types of wetlands in flood management.

"Lonjsko Polje is a view of the future from the past," said Helmut Volk, one of the participants and lecturers. Participants agreed to continue the discussion and will organise a follow-up conference on conservation and management of riparian forests.

Goran Gugić is the managing director of Lonjsko Polje Nature Park Public Service in Croatia.