The German-Polish BRI project MoPA, ‘Monitoring for Protected Areas with a Special Focus on Biodiversity and the Sustainable Development of the Areas’, played an active role as a co-organiser of the successful international conference “15th Floodplain Ecology Workshop”, which brought together around 150 representatives from universities, research institutes, specialist authorities, protected area management bodies and NGOs, primarily from German-speaking countries and Poland, on 25–26 March 2026.

During the conference, numerous presentations and a poster session addressed and discussed challenges in river and floodplain development, innovative methodological approaches, and cross-border cooperation between Germany and Poland along the River Oder. 

During a study trip to the Lower Oder Valley following the conference, participants were able, as part of the MoPA project and within the boundaries of a participating protected area, to engage directly with the challenges and opportunities in cross-border tourism and protected area development, as well as with biodiversity issues, particularly using the River Oder as a case study. The time spent together in the field provided further opportunities for networking and individual exchanges. The consistently positive feedback from participants is proof of the event's success.