The Mureș Floodplain Natural Park, set aside by the Romanian government in 2005, is located in western Romania outside the city of Arad.

The main purpose of the Mureș Floodplain Natural Park[3] is to protect and preserve the habitats and landscape diversity from the region.

The two parks border each other and have created a cross-border protected area with a future common management plan.

The Mureș Floodplain Natural Park has an ecosystem that is typical for wetlands, with running and still waters, large forests and periodic floods (every several years).

Many plants within the park need the periodic flooding in order to germinate and to consume the nutrients freshly dissolved in the water.

Some of these include: yarrow (Achillea thracica), water soldier (Stratiotes aloides), common corncockle (Agrostemma githago), Cirsium brachycephalum, prostrate false pimpernel (Lindernia procumbens), brittle waternymph (Najas minor), hog's fennel (Peucedanum officinale), lesser butterfly-orchid (Platanthera bifolia), Scottish dock (Rumex aquaticus), French vetch (Vicia narbonensis L. ssp.

Among these are: European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), European polecat (Mustela putorius), brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus), otter (Lutra lutra), European wildcat (Felis silvestris), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), fallow deer (Dama dama) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus).

Nearly all the birds living in The Mures Floodplain Natural Park are included in the annexes of the Bern Convention and the EU's Habitats Directive.

Among these are: great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo), black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), grey heron (Ardea cinerea), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus), Eurasian coot (Fulica atra), little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus), little grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), water rail (Rallus aquaticus), European bee-eater (Merops apiaster).

For the fish species in the park, the periodic flooding of the Mureș River is a blessing; this process provides new spawning grounds, as well as generating new food and protection.

Between 2001 and 2005, the Mureș Floodplain Natural Park implemented, at what was then the largest Phare grant in Romania (co-financed for 2.6 million Euros).

The building houses a 34-bed hotel, a conference room that seats up to 70 people, a kitchen and dining area, a laboratory, and the park's administrative offices.

On the northern side of the river is the Saint Paraschiva Monastery, which can be found just outside the village of Bodrogu Vechi.