PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
A discreet tip for nature lovers: the Waldviertel in the northern part of Lower Austria, where the LIFE project area (Gmünd district, close to the Czech border) offers a landscape marked by wooded hills, swift streams and a spectrum of wetlands. Centre stage are the still very natural Lainsitz and Reiszbach streams, escorted by galleries of ash and alder trees and eutrophic tall herbs, as well as centuries-old fish ponds with their banks and terrestrialization zones, which harbour a range of species. The origin of some of these fishponds goes back to the 13th century. Today they are important secondary habitats for little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus), white-eyed pochard (Aythya nyroca) and spotted crake (Porzana porzana), to name but a few. The sizeable otter population is also worthy of mention. This natural heritage was threatened in the 1990s by regulation of the streams, intensive agriculture and fish farming and the dredging of the terrestrialization zones in the fishponds.
OBJECTIVES
A wide range of measures was foreseen to tackle the threats effectively. As the project was divided into 7 subsites (2 sections of stream, 4 fishponds, 1 bog), not all of which had yet been sufficiently examined scientifically, the missing data would be collected and management plans drawn up. The lease of angling concessions and the purchase of strips along the banks was to pave the way for removing fir monocultures and establishing protection zones along the edges of watercourses. Concerning the fishponds, the LIFE project intended to embark on a programme for ecological fish farming in which pond owners contractually commit themselves to exploit the ponds extensively and preserve terrestrialization zones. This programme would benefit nature without generating financial drawbacks for fishpond owners, which should guarantee general acceptance for the LIFE project amongst the local communities.
RESULTS
The project carried out actions in 11 subsites: two river sections and adjacent meadows (Lainsitz, Reißbach), six fishponds (Gebhartsteich, Brüneiteich, Jägerteich, Großradischenteich, Schandachenteich, Winkelauer Teich) and three bogs (Bummer Moos, Gemeindeau, Rottalmoos). Three main habitat types were concerned: fishponds with their reed margins and Molinion wet meadows; bogs and the riverine associations (streambed, wet grassland, alluvial woodland). For each of the sites, an inventory was drawn up. Many volunteers participated in this action. On the basis of the inventories, management plans were drawn up for a total of 1000 ha. They were produced in 20-40 copies each and sent to landowners and local authorities. The restoration works done by the project were based on the plans: • 20.8 ha of planted forest (mainly spruce) was thinned and either converted to meadow or made more diverse by planting deciduous trees • 13 small dams were built across ditches draining bogs, rehumidifying 24 ha of bog (one-off compensation for the loss of land use as water levels rose, was paid for 20.5 ha in all) Dam building and tree cutting have been effective in allowing the rehumidification and regeneration of a peat-forming vegetation and in increasing the area of open space. In so doing, the LIFE-Nature project contributed to improve the regional conservation status of several species, including the annex II dragonfly Leucorrhinia pectoralis. • scrub was cleared from a bird islet in one pond and two artificial nests built • debris was removed from a pond • a hedge was planted as barrier to the industrial estate Waidhofen • native fish were supplied to an angler to restock a section of river • angling rights were leased for the duration of the LIFE Nature project. 249 ha of fishpond was brought under extensification agreements. LIFE paid for the ecologically more beneficial management of the ponds, but after project end there was initially a period in which follow-up funding from regional public sources proved to be uncertain. However, in 2000 the extensification scheme was included in Austria’s Rural Development Programme 2001-2006 under Regulation 1257/99 by the competent authorities. Here the LIFE project actions had an incentive effect. The project also promoted agri-environment, bringing 89.8 ha of alluvial meadows under management contracts (focusing on mowing) co-financed by Regulation 2078/92. In terms of nature education, a special issue of the WWF youth magazine “Panda Club” dedicated to wetland protection in the Waldviertel was published in 1997 and distributed to all primary schools in the district. In it, the Waldviertel ecology and the LIFE project were explained as a sort of treasure hunt with clues and questions. A real outdoors treasure hunt was actually organised in the district, in which 100 children participated. A special issue of the adult WWF magazine, Panda, which described the project, LIFE and Natura 2000, was produced in 1998 in 40,000 copies and widely distributed in the district (municipalities, interest groups). A report for the general public “Natura 2000 in Waldviertel” was published at project end. Contacts were built up with an INTERREG project just north of the LIFE project and the project also shared experience with similar LIFE-Nature projects elsewhere in Austria and Germany. Overall, in this project, LIFE-Nature supported pioneering work by WWF in a district where not all that much practical conservation had been done previously. Many of the areas surveyed and inventoried by the project had not yet been described from a scientific point of view. Although some sites had been protected under regional law by the competent authorities, the LIFE-Nature project was the first attempt to get practical conservation work off the ground in a coherent way, and so had a significant incentive role in the Waldviertel district as the first systematic practical conservation programme undertaken in the area. The LIFE-Nature project brought in several locally new ideas such as fishpond extensification, keeping streamside meadows open instead of afforesting them or allowing them to become overgrown, and mire restoration. By promoting fishpond extensification and meadow management agreements it opened up new sources of income for land users. During the project, there were many meetings with farmers, mayors, hunters, landowners and anglers (about 1200 people altogether, plus 34 schools) to promote the idea of extensive use of meadows and fish ponds and to stop the practice of afforesting meadows. A public meeting, attended by 100 stakeholders, was organized in Sept. 1998 in Litschau with as theme ‘Natura 2000 – what does it mean in practice?’ The project created 2 full-time jobs for its duration and one of these was continued beyond, thanks to the establishment of a WWF office in the district as a centre to continue and coordinate conservation work in the Waldviertel. At the end of the project, there were plans by local authorities to build a Ramsar centre at Gmünd from which this whole area (including the LIFE subsites) could be managed.