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Description
Intensively managed fishponds are considered the most important breeding habitat for waterbirds as nesting sites as well as for rearing of young. In last decades, environmental change (incl. climate change) has deeply impacted waterbirds’ population dynamics. Most key drivers of population change, such as reproduction success, are strongly affected by environmental conditions on the breeding sites. Importantly, the lack of suitable nesting sites leads to competition for this critical resource. In this context, this project aims to increase the ecological value of man-made wetlands (i.e. mainly fishponds and post-mining water reservoirs) by creating new suitable nesting sites and enhancing the ecological conditions of fishponds to meet the breeding requirement of a group of selected waterbird species (ducks, gulls and terns) of interest. The intervention proposed in this project consists in the implementation of floating artificial islands in intensively managed fishponds through Nature-Based Solutions. These islands will directly provide the actual space for waterbirds to breed on but, importantly, will also create and enhance the entire local ecosystem by supporting the macrophyte vegetation and provide suitable habitat for the development of other fresh water organisms.