The basis for the interpretation of nature is the exceptional biological diversity of the area, recognized through the different categories of protection, which is the basis of the arrangement of set up of the building and the park:
On July 3rd, 1969, the Republic Institute for Nature Protection issued a decision to declare the Group of Trees around the former estate in Noskovačka Dubrava a protected natural monument (a group of rare specimens of trees). The category of protection was proposed with the explanation that the Group of trees is a "rarity in this part of Slavonia". At the time of protection, 27 species of trees and shrubs were recorded in the park, but their number have been declining over the years. In 2015, by the project Landscape Revitalization and Biodiversity Protection within the Cooperation in the Area of the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, acronym: Three Rivers = One Aim (HUHR / 1101 / 1.1.1. / 0005), the park was restored, all species that were recorded at the time of protection in 1969 were returned into the park and park infrastructure was set up.
Today, according to the category of protection, the park is a monument of park architecture because it has aesthetic, stylistic, artistic, cultural-historical and educational value, and is entered in the Register of Protected Areas of the Republic of Croatia under registration number 583.
The Drava River in the Virovitica Podravina County has been part of the National Ecological Network since 2007, and the European Ecological Network NATURA 2000 since 2013, which is a European network of areas important for the conservation of endangered species and habitat types. The legislative framework of Natura 2000 consists of the Birds Protection Directive, which declares areas of special protection for birds (SPA) and the Directive on the protection of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora, which declares special areas of conservation of species and habitat types (SAC).
NATURA 2000 aims to preserve or restore the favorable status of more than a thousand endangered and rare species and about 230 natural and semi-natural habitat types.
The Mura Drava Regional Park was declared by the Government of the Republic of Croatia in 2011. The Mura Drava Regional Park covers 5 Croatian counties and covers an area of 87,680 ha (Međimurje, Varaždin, Koprivnica Križevci, Virovitica Podravina and Osijek Baranja County). The share of VPC in the area of the Mura Drava Regional Park is 20.35%, ie 17,801.96 ha, and the park also includes 5 previously protected areas (Significant landscapes Križnica, Jelkuš, Širinski otok and Wetland habitat Vir and Monument of park architecture – a Group of trees in Noskovačka Dubrava). In the area of the Regional Park in VPC there are 7 municipalities (Pitomača, Špišić Bukovica, Lukač, Gradina, Suhopolje, Sopje and Čađavica). This area is of exceptional value at the regional, national and European level due to biodiversity and cultural heritage, and the examples of harmonious coexistence of man and nature.
At the 24th session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program, held in July 2012 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Croatian Hungarian transboundary Biosphere Reserve Mura Drava Danube was declared. This is the second Croatian biosphere reserve, after the Velebit mountain, which became a part of this world network in 1977.
The area of this first Croatian cross-border biosphere reserve in the Republic of Croatia includes the entire course of the Mura and Drava rivers (which have been protected in the Regional Park category since February 2011), the Danube River and the Kopački rit Nature Park. It stretches through 6 northern counties (Međimurje, Varaždin, Koprivnica Križevci, Virovitica Podravina, Osijek Baranja and Vukovar Srijem county) on an area of 395,860.7 ha. In Hungary, it encompasses areas along the Mura, Drava and Danube, and includes Natura 2000 sites and the Danube Drava National Park. The flows of these rivers and their floodplains in both countries are part of the European ecological network Natura 2000, recognized as important areas for wild species and habitat types and as internationally important areas for birds.
After the proclamation of the Bačko Podunavlje Biosphere Reserve in Serbia in 2017, the Mura Biosphere Reserve in Slovenia in 2018 and the Styria Mura Biosphere Reserve in Austria in 2019, in September 2019 the 1st Pentalateral Biosphere Reserve Mura Drava Danube in the world was nominated, whose proclamation is expected during the summer of 2021.
The European Green Belt stretches through the 24 European countries, from the Barents to the Black Sea, along the border area of the former "Iron Curtain", ie the line that divided Europe into two separate political blocs. Due to political conflicts in that zone, there were no economic investments and the area was conquered by nature over time, so now it represents a great natural and landscape value that deserves protection and preservation.
The Croatian part of the Green Belt includes the rivers Mura, Drava and Danube and stretches along the border between the Republic of Croatia and Hungary. The Adriatic coast includes the Brijuni Islands. Rivers and their alluvial plains are characterized by preserved wetlands such as floodplain forests, backwaters, steep banks and reefs. The bird fauna is of the international importance, and the richness of fish, dragonflies and mammals as well as the rich flora is the stand out. The Mura Drava Regional Park encompasses the entire course of these rivers, and at the confluence of the Drava and the Danube is the Kopački rit Nature Park, which is also a Ramsar site. The Croatian Green Belt is a part of the European ecological network Natura 2000 and the UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Mura Drava Danube. The Brijuni Islands on the Adriatic sea are protected as a national park.
The Green Belt area in the Virovitica Podravina County covers more than 70 km of the border area with Hungary, which follows the course of the Drava River (Mura Drava Regional Park, Mura Drava Danube Biosphere Reserve). The Public Institution for the Management of Protected Parts of Nature and the Ecological Network of Virovitica Podravina County, with the support of Virovitica Podravina County, is a signatory to the founding document of the Green Belt Association (September 2014). The accession of the Public Institution to this association aims to better protect and preserve this extremely valuable area of biological diversity, as well as the presentation and promotion of Virovitica Podravina County through the development of specific forms of tourism in protected areas.
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