Project "Conserving Acrocephalus paludicola in Poland and Germany"
The Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (OTOP), the Polish partner of BirdLife International, together with its partners, is carrying out the largest Polish project for protecting this species, the rarest songbird in Europe. The project is 75% funded by the European Union’s LIFE-Nature Fund and totals €5,4 million, €4 million coming from the European Union and the remainder from the beneficiary (OTOP), six project partners and three co-financing organizations (organizations which do not take an active part in the project but only finance it). The project will last until 2010.
The Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) was once widespread on the marshes and bogs of all of continental Europe. However, in the 20th century most of the sites were drained for agriculture and now the species' range is limited to Eastern Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Hungary. It is estimated that there are about 3,5 thousand singing male Aquatic Warblers in Poland, which represents 17% of the world population and as much as 80% of the European Union population.
In July 2004, as part of the Bonn Convention concerned with the protection of migratory wild animals, the Polish government signed an agreement on Aquatic Warbler protection and all of the signatory countries committed themselves to implement it nationally.
Why is it important to undertake drastic steps
towards Aquatic Warbler protection?
The Aquatic Warbler is on the edge of extinction all around the world. Poland is one of the three countries, together with Belarus and Ukraine, where the species has survived in relatively large numbers. The Aquatic Warbler is extremely rare elsewhere. Therefore Poland is obliged to protect the species from being added to the list of the Earth's extinct species.
Polish Pomerania has been included in the project as the remnants of the so-called Western Population of Aquatic Warbler, which once extended from the marshes of the Netherlands, through Brandenburg to Polish Pomerania. For instance, in 19th-century Brandenburg, the species was numerous enough to be called “a reed sparrow” (the number reached 100 thousand singing males). Nowadays, the number is 8-12 singing males. Research, including the use of molecular genetics and stable isotopes in the birds' feathers, has shown the differences between the Pomeranian and Poleski population, which occurs in eastern Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Unlike the Pomeranian areas, the population here is relatively large and stable. Therefore, the protection of these areas may guarantee a source of birds to recolonise the sites in Pomerania.
