The area of the Mura-Drava Regional Park largely overlaps with the Natura 2000 ecological network areas designated in accordance with European directives (Birds Directive and Habitats Directive), which are the basis of EU legislation in nature protection.
Natura 2000 is a European ecological network consisting of areas hosting natural habitat types and habitats of wild species of interest to the European Union, and enables the conservation or, where necessary, restoration to a favourable conservation status of certain natural habitat types and habitats of species in their natural range. So far, the ecological network has included around 27,800 areas on almost 20% of the EU territory, making it the largest system of protected areas in the world, and among the areas included in the European ecological network is the area of the so-called Drava reservoirs, i.e. the area along the Drava River from the border with Slovenia to the end of the Dubrava HPP reservoir, within which the Drava Forest-park is located.
Within the European Natura 2000 network, we distinguish between Important Bird Areas (IBA) and Important Species and Habitat Conservation Areas (ISHA). The area along the Drava River in Varaždin County is both an Important Bird Area (IBA) and an Important Species and Habitat Conservation Area (ISHA):
The Drava Reservoir IBA is an important bird conservation area for numerous bird species (waterfowl, black stork, red-billed tern, little wagtail, scoter, great egret, marsh harrier, egret, little egret, lesser kestrel, little falcon, little egret, griffon vulture, gadwall, little black vulture, and others).
Drava Reservoirs ISHA – a conservation area important for the conservation of numerous species (otter, beaver, bolen, striped sedge, Baloni's sedge, great dragonfly, golden curlew, white-finned grebe, scarlet grebe) and habitat types (alluvial forests, lowland meadows, natural eutrophic waters with Hydrocharition or Magnopotamion vegetation, hydrophilic edges of tall green vegetation along rivers and forests).