PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Heathlands are highly threatened in Belgium, as in most other northwest European countries, and their surface area has declined sharply in recent decades, mainly due to land development for agriculture and forestry. The potentially best-quality heaths and mat grasslands are found on military domains. For the Belgian sites outside the military estate, the threat of agricultural and forestry development was still there in the 1990s, and there were new problems linked to the rise of 'hard' outdoor leisure activities (especially in the Zwarte Beek valley). Around 1995, only fragmented remnants, surrounded by agricultural or forestry land, were left. If action was not taken urgently, these too threatened to disappear or their seed banks would become exhausted.
OBJECTIVES
There were 9 subsites, with a marked difference between lowland and upland Belgium. The five in the Kempen and Hainaut were essentially lowland heaths, whereas the four in the eastern Ardennes had a continental or even boreal character and mainly consisted of mat grasslands, raised bogs and swamp forests. Previous efforts in these Ardennes sites had focused on valley wetlands (priority at the time); LIFE was to allow land purchase to move uphill into the heaths and grasslands. Because, besides the habitats, the nine sites contained species on Annexes I and II of the Birds and Habitats Directives (Luronium natans, Euphydrias aurinia, Leucorrhinia pectoralis and Botaurus stellaris), management plans for both species and habitats would be drawn up. Nevertheless, the project focused on land purchase, particularly in wet heathlands (including the vicinities of springs). Wherever purchased areas had, through succession, evolved to woodlands, trees would be cut to restore the heaths. Topsoil would be removed and water levels raised on some sites. Recurring management (mowing, pruning, grazing) would be initiated and the LIFE funds used to buy the necessary equipment. Local farmers in the Ardennes were already showing an interest at project beginning in bringing their cattle to pasture on such heathland reserves.
RESULTS
The project carried out actions in nine subsites (Zwarte Beek, Visbeek, Kindernauw, and Aa-beek in the Kempen (Limburg and Antwerpen Provinces), Hautes Ardennes Orientales and Ardennes Orientales in the east of the Province of Liège, Massif de Recht, Croix Scaille, Campine Hennuyère). The work was divided between two conservation NGOs : Natuurreservaten VZW and Réserves naturelles et ornithologiques de Belgique (RNOB), representing respectively the regions of Flanders and Wallonia. The following was done: • Management plans covering over 220 ha (150 ha Flanders, 70 ha Wallonia) were drawn up. In some sites additional preparatory inventories were done. • The land purchase objective of this project (100ha) was exceeded: altgether 144 ha (81.3 ha in Flanders, 63.2 ha in Wallonia) were purchased. Land acquisition mostly concerned degraded FFH habitats with good restoration possibilities. In most project areas, land purchase financed by LIFE-Nature provided an important kick-start for further conservation actions. Overall, the LIFE land purchase contributed towards the beneficiaries’ aim of building large coherent blocks of grasslands, heath land and mire areas for management. This target was reached particularly well in the Zwarte Beek, where earlier ACE and LIFE projects had already been active. • In all sites land acquisition was followed either by restoration (such as cutting invasive or planted trees to reopen former heaths and grasslands or blocking ditches to raise water levels in bogs and mires) and/or recurring mowing or grazing management for the conservation of Nardus grasslands and heathlands. • Non-recurring actions covered the removal of 59 ha spruce forests and Prunus serotina trees, stump removal, the fencing of several areas, the removal of willows along ditches to favour development of Chara populations, sod cutting, ditch blocking. • Equipment was bought (4WD vehicle, mowing and haymaking machinery) for use by volunteers and site management personnel Project sub-sites are inside SPAs or have been designated as pSCIs for the target biotopes (Nardetalia, wet heathland, dry heathland, bog woodland and species-rich grasslands) of this project. Safeguarding and improving their conservation status added a link to the Natura 2000 chain because acquisition and restoration connected once-fragmented biotopes. The beneficiaries were able to get municipalities and the farming community involved in the project: In Flanders, this was the first LIFE-Nature project where the beneficiary succeeded in receiving additional support from local municipalities while in Wallonia the beneficiary worked successfully with the farming community, through management contracts. Agri-environment schemes also intervened in Wallonia. Striking is also the very intensive local involvement by both partners – much site work was done by volunteers from the local communities. The beneficiaries strongly promoted the actions financed by LIFE Nature to a wider public through dissemination of publications specially devoted to Natura 2000 and LIFE-Nature projects in Belgium. Four folders were produced (15-30,000 copies each) plus hiking maps, 42 information panels erected, special issues of the membership magazines published and open door days organised. The project networked with the UK-France transboundary LIFE project on Atlantic Heathlands. In the eastern Ardenne subsite (“Parc naturel des Hautes Fagnes”) the project led to two INTERREG follow-up projects to continue land purchase, clearing of spruce and purchase of Galloway cattle for grazing management. In the Province of Limburg, sites have been included in the provincial nature-based tourism programme, with support from the municipalities. In Wallonia too, visitors were not barred from the sites but encouraged through the dissemination of folders and organisation of excursions.