PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The aquatic warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) — Europe’s rarest passerine bird — is classified as vulnerable at a global level and listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. It is protected by the EU Birds Directive and 2 international conventions, but the current world population is shrinking — it now occupies less than 1 500 km2, and current estimates are that fewer than 11 000 singing males remain, in fewer than 50 breeding sites. The decline is mainly due to the lack of suitable primary and secondary breeding habitats in Europe, as the birds’ favoured nesting sites are progressively drained, intensively managed or degraded.
Over the last 30 years the Birdlife International Aquatic Warbler Conservation Team has successfully improved and restored many deteriorated breeding habitats in many countries. The LIFE4Aquatic Warbler project builds on numerous previous conservation projects — including LIFE MagniDucatusAcrola, which comes to an end in 2026 — which have successfully restored degraded aquatic warbler habitats in Lithuania and translocated hundreds of chicks from other countries.
OBJECTIVES
LIFE4Aquatic Warbler will contribute to the International Species Action Plan for the Aquatic Warbler by restoring breeding sites in Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The main aim is to halt the decline of subpopulations in all 5 countries and to expand the birds’ breeding range to a larger area by helping them reoccupy at least 6 former breeding sites.
It aims to achieve this by:
- reversing population decline in Ukraine
- improving breeding habitats and increasing the number of birds in Pomerania (Germany and Poland)
- restoring and improving potential breeding sites, and growing the breeding population in Lithuania
- restoring and enlarging potentially suitable habitats, and increasing the number of birds in Hungary
- improving conditions for habitat restoration and management in the project countries by connecting aquatic warbler subpopulations with high quality habitat ‘stepping stone’ sites
- enhancing Ukraine-EU nature protection and rural development cooperation
- building Ukraine’s capacity to participate in the LIFE programme in the future
- devising new, efficient, up-to-date agri-environmental schemes for Central and Eastern Europe to drive economic development in rural areas
- promoting the idea of locally used biomass in decentralised facilities as a way to protect nature in areas with poor infrastructure
- leveraging private sector demands for carbon sequestration to fund wetland restoration
- raising awareness of the project and its results among target audiences
RESULTS
The LIFE4Aquatic Warbler project’s expected results are:
- increase in the number of aquatic warbler singing males by 843-1 037 across all project sites
- increase in the area of restored breeding habitat and occupancy to at least 3 910 hectares (ha) (1 500 ha in Ukraine and 2 410 ha in the EU)
- translocation of at least 760 juveniles to the most suitable potential breeding sites in Poland, Germany and Lithuania
- establishment of populations in 6 new ‘stepping stone’ locations in Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Hungary
- implementation of water management projects at 6 sites in Lithuania (Žuvintas, Dysna, Nemunas Delta), Poland (Krajnik), Germany (Mollensee) and Ukraine (Birky)
- restoration of at least 1 515 ha of breeding habitat through better water management and at least 3 020 ha through better vegetation management
- designation of a new Natura 2000 site in Lithuania
- preparation or update of 12 nature management plans for adoption in all 5 target countries
- development of a new national species conservation plan for Hungary
- update of existing national species conservation plans for Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Ukraine
- update of the International Species Action Plan
- creation or update of beneficial agri-environmental schemes in Lithuania, Poland and Germany
- reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 7 525 tonnes/CO2/year from restored wetland sites
- raise in water levels to the point at which peat turns into a carbon sink, resulting in increased CO2 sequestration of 189 tonnes/year
- promotion of biomass processing using sustainably-harvested biomass from restored habitats in Lithuania, Germany and Ukraine
- at least 500 households changed from using peat briquettes to biomass briquettes
