PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Humid grasslands are threatened by agricultural intensification throughout Europe but in spite of its high-yield farming and the fragmentation of its landscapes, Belgium still has humid grasslands of great biological value. This is due to the geographic location of the country at the transition from the north European lowlands to the hilly country of central Europe and because a number of farms have, at least until recently, stubbornly clung to traditional ways rather than 'improving' production methods. Belgium's remaining oligotrophic lowland hay meadows, tall grass meadows and Molinia grasslands on clay subsoil constitute an essential biotope for several bird species, notably the corncrake, of which a population, fluctuating wildly from year to year, occurs in Wallonia. However, these meadows were threatened in the 1990s by farmers using them to grow grass for silage rather than for hay, by transformation to arable land or poplar/spruce plantations, or by drainage affecting also the adjacent wet alder woods.
OBJECTIVES
The central purpose of the project was to continue building up reserves of humid grassland habitat, for the benefit of birds requiring such habitat, at 8 subsites. In Wallonia: la Vallee de l'Eau Blanche,la Fagne orientale,la Famenne, vallees du Vachau et du Biron, and Wavreille. In Flanders: Ijzerbroeken, Kalkense Meersen and Demervallei. It followed on from a previous LIFE-Nature project (Conservation of the corncrake, Crex crex, in Belgium, 1994). The new LIFE-Nature project intended to purchase land to further expand the grassland reserves already acquired by its predecessor, or start new ones. Gaining coherent blocks of land would make it easier to carry out works to rehumidify these grasslands. Acquisition would also give a greater voice in the "Wateringen", the autonomous drainage boards run by local landowners, which so far had systematically lowered water levels wherever they could. \ LIFE-Nature funds would also be used to clear grassland of trees, fence it for grazing and to buy tools to carry out recurring management of the reserves afterwards. As well as for carrying on publication of a newsletter for farmers about adjusting agriculture practice to spare corncrakes. The project would also examine if such practices (late mowing etc.) really led to inferior hay, as is often claimed.
RESULTS
The two NGOs running the project (Réserves Naturelles Ornithologiques de Belgique RNOB and Natuurreservaten vzw) divided work in the 8 subsites between them: vallée de l’eau Blanche, la Fagne Orientale, la Famenne, vallées du Vachau et du Biran and Wavreilles (all in Wallonia) for RNOB and Ijzerbroeken (Blankaart), Kalkense Meersen and Demervallei-Zwarte Beek (all in Flanders) for Natuurreservaten. The focus was on land acquisition to obtain larger and better manageable areas within the subsites, in most of which the two NGOs had already been active before LIFE and had acquired more or less fragmented areas, on the preparation of management plans to obtain a status of ‘acknowledged nature reserve’ from the competent authorities and on habitat restoration or initial one-off management. In detail, the following was done: • Management plans were prepared for 244 ha in all. The beneficiaries prepared plans for the areas they had bought; after their validation by the competent authorities this land became ‘acknowledged nature reserve’ and qualified for co-financing from the government for the recurring management. • 201 ha were purchased, well in excess of the 167 ha targeted. The most successful subsite was Demervallei-Zwarte Beek (97 ha bought). • Removal of poplar plantations in Demervallei and Zwarte Beek to restore grasslands, on which mowing and grazing management then began. Parts of the land were fenced. • In Wallonia, 10 ha were fenced at Lombitch (Fagne Orientale) as well as smaller sections in Comogne, Tournailles and Vivy le Bois. • Removal of trees and scrub from 10 ha in Comogne, Ruisseau de Biran, Vivy le Bois and Tournailles. • Restoration of 3 ha reedland in the Blankaart by scraping off topsoil and cutting willows. Before the start of the project, the eutrophic silt in the Blankaart lake itself had already been dredged with ERDF support. • Excavating pools (several in Blankaart and Kalkense Meersen, 14 pools in Famenne and 2 in the Fagne). • Management contracts were concluded with farmers to mow or graze. Results were variable: In Flanders not all farmers were interested (citing poor quality of vegetation, wet soil) but in Wallonia uptake was better. RNOB has been promoting agri-environment schemes based on Regulation 2078/92 among farmers. • Consequently, both NGOs rely on volunteers to ensure management where farmers are not participating, while at project end Natuurreservaten was setting up teams of unskilled workers under the aegis of public programmes for the re-integration of people marginalised from the labour market. LIFE cofinanced the purchase of equipment for volunteers and workmen. It also funded a shelter for Galloway cattle owned by RNOB which were deployed in the Fagne Orientale subsite for grazing management. • Several meetings were held with landowners affected; a site visit for farmers to the Comagne subsite to see recurring management in action was a success • A nature education workbook “Au pays du roi des cailles” on corncrakes was issued for use in local schools. • Publication of 9 newsletters “Courrier du râle” • Publication of articles in the membership magazines of Natuurreservaten and RNOB • Information panels were installed at several subsites and little folders with maps and descriptions of hiking routes were produced for several Wallonian sites. The project attended an international workshop on Crex crex in Sept. 1998 and collaborated with the Libramont Agricultural Polytechnic in a project to research the quality of fodder from grasslands managed according to nature conservation prescriptions. An important target to be addressed after the end of the project was the establishment of a higher groundwater level in the Ijzerbroeken and Kalkense Meersen. This will not only depend on acquiring any sections of private land still left between what is already owned by Natuurreservaten, but also on resolving the differences with the local water boards and farmers over water levels.