Regional park Gornje Podunavlje

 park, protected area, Ramsar site, forest belt

Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve is a large protected area of wetland in the northwest of Serbia. It comprises two big marshes along the left bank of the Danube River - the Monostor and Apatin marsh, including 66 km (41 miles) of the Danube course (1366 - 1433 km).

The first designation as a protected area dates back to 1955, when an area of 10 square kilometres (3.9 square miles) was proposed as an important habitat for the White-tailed Eagle and the Black Stork. Since then, the area included and the level of protection has been gradually increased. Gornje Podunavlje was designated as a Special Nature Reserve in 2001, with a total size of 19,648 ha (48,551 acres).

Gornje Podunavlje is also an important trans-boundary area, creating a vast Central Danube Floodplains, the large trans-boundary floodplain in the middle Danube, along the route of the southern European Green Belt. It is one of the best preserved wetlands in the Danube River Basin area.

As one of the last integral floodplains of the Danube, it contains some of the most valuable wetland habitats and therefore is a sanctuary for many species, which with their lifecycles, is inherently connected to the river. Natural poplar, oak and willow forests and occasionally flooded wet meadows or numerous oxbow lakes and swamps, which were once widespread in the Danube wetlands, are today rare and fragmented habitats.