PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The project area (4,235 ha) is located within a special protection area (Kiskunsági szikes tavak és az őrjegi turjánvidék) and mostly also within a special area of conservation (Felső-kiskunsági szikes tavak és Miklapuszta), both of which are situated in South-Central Hungary.
LIFEforBUGS&BIRDS targets 3 types of habitat covered by the EU Habitats Directive, all of which have unfavourable conservation status overall: Pannonic salt steppes and marshes, Pannonic loess steppic grasslands, and Semi-natural dry grasslands.
The conservation issues to be addressed are:
- Land abandonment, which is a major cause of the decline of biodiversity adapted to low-intensity agriculture;
- The decline of farmland birds due to agricultural intensification;
- The decline of arthropod populations and the related loss of ecosystem services as a result of habitat loss and the increasing use of insecticides in agriculture; and
- The decline or loss of insect diversity and decomposition due to the wide use of anthelmintic veterinary drugs (i.e. drugs used to treat animals with parasitic worm infections such as ivermectin).
OBJECTIVES
LIFEforBUGS&BIRDS’s primary objective is to improve the conservation status of Pannonic salt steppes and marshes and Pannonic steppic grasslands. In addition, the conservation status of some Semi-natural dry grasslands on calcareous substrates will be improved. The project aims to achieve this by implementing a balanced mix of conservation management, including both best practice actions for traditional management and innovative approaches that raise the added value of the project to the European scale. |
The specific objectives are to:
- Re-establish low-intensity and insect-friendly sheep grazing on the most valuable 120 ha of the project area;
- Implement mowing, prescribed burning and cattle grazing, allowing the extension of insect-friendly sheep grazing to the entire leased core area (more than 760 ha);
- Work with local farmers to further extend insect-friendly sheep and cattle grazing to at least 2,000 ha;
- Increase habitat diversity for arthropods by introducing insect hotels, anthelmintics-free dung piles and wood piles on 60 ha of conventionally grazed grasslands;
- Improve grassland quality and eliminate habitats of unwanted game species by controlling invasive alien shrubs (Eleagnus angustifolia) in the worst affected 15 ha; and
- Reduce damage to grasslands and predation pressure by controlling unwanted game species.
Through the conservation of Natura 2000 habitats and species, the project will contribute significantly to the implementation of both the Habitats and Birds directives.
It will also provide new knowledge on the impact of veterinary anthelmintic drugs on non-target arthropods and other animal groups, and on whether and how these impacts can be eliminated or minimised by insect-friendly grazing or artificial arthropod habitats. The knowledge gained will be assembled in several documents for use in developing EU nature and biodiversity policy as well as the common agricultural policy (CAP).
A policy proposal on insect-friendly grassland management will also be developed. This will be submitted to the relevant authority in the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture for relaying to decision-makers at the EU level during the next round of CAP planning.RESULTS
Expected results:
- Significant improvement in the conservation status of Pannonic salt steppes and marshes and Pannonic loess steppic grasslands on 2 800 ha (two-thirds of the project area);
- Habitat management re-established in the core area (more than 760 ha) after a hiatus of 15-20 years;
- Pre-management by mowing, prescribed burning and cattle grazing, resulting in increased habitat diversity in 250 ha of homogeneous marshes, meadows and grasslands;
- Insect-friendly sheep grazing on 550 ha, diversifying vegetation and introducing organic matter for the re-establishment of dung fauna (70-80 species);
- Improved conservation status of alkali steppes and marshes on 2,000 ha outside the core area, thanks to insect-friendly grazing by cattle or sheep;
- Conservation status of 15 species of protected plants improved by low-intensity grazing and avoidance of overgrazing;
- Management increasing the habitat availability and quality for the flowering plant Cirsium brachycephalum on 50 ha and the beetle Dorcadion fulvum cervae on 550 ha;
- Artificial habitats for insects in a conventionally grazed area of 60 ha, leading to higher abundance of grassland arthropods and dung fauna in particular;
- Management and higher arthropod abundance leading to the re-establishment of Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) and Stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) as breeding species and increasing habitat availability and quality for 17 other shorebirds and wetland birds;
- Habitat management improving the feeding or breeding conditions for 10 species of farmland birds and 7 species of birds of prey;
- 15 ha of open landscape cleared of the invasive alien shrub Russian olive (Eleagnus angustifolia); and
- Unwanted game species controlled in the project area (4,235 ha).
