Join this year’s volunteer actions for steppe birds
SOS/BirdLife Slovakia invites you to take part in upcoming volunteer events within the LIFE 4 STEPPE BIRDS project focused on monitoring and helping steppe birds.
Steering Committee Meeting Highlights
The Steering Committee of the LIFE Resistance Project convened for its first meeting on 19th of November, bringing together representatives from eight beneficiary organizations to discuss progress, achievements, and future plans.
We started grazing in Hungary
Our project partner, László Szomolányi, has introduced water buffalo grazing on a 12-hectare area in October 2024, marking a significant step towards habitat restoration and biodiversity enhancement.
We restored wetlands for butterflies
Last year, in the Site of European Importance ‘Holubyho kopanice’ in the White Carpathians, we focused on clearing several springs and travertine marshes of invasive woody plants, maintaining infiltration pits, and hand-mowing meadows in their vicinity. These rare wetland habitats are inaccessible to larger machinery, which led to the abandonment of management practices, gradual overgrowth, and subsequent drying out.
70 new nest boxes for rollers in eastern Slovakia
Currently, 70 new nest boxes are being installed on power line poles in the SPA Medzibodrožie area. The European roller didn’t nest in Slovakia for a full decade after 2010.
The project LIFE Resistance has its visual identity
The project logo has an organic character. It symbolises life regardless of its form. The graphic design depicts a sign thrown into the water, which slowly dissolves and also refers to the rewetting of the sites. It does not have clear lines and the letters connect to each other.
Project mission successfully accomplished
We could now gladly inform, that the main project objective – to restore the key natural habitats of Danube floodplains and to introduce sound sustainable management – was achieved.
Removal of migration barrier
Various types of man-made barriers such as dams, weirs, steps, fords, culverts, etc. create obstacles in streams and cause water levels to rise. This creates non-native lake ecosystems with many negative effects, above the barriers due to the slowing of the flow and below the barriers due to the disturbed water regime and sediment transport regime.
First attempts to reintroduce bluebirds have been made
The reintroduction of the protected species Pseudophilotes bavius and Phengaris teleius began in the Romanian project sites in 2023. In the following season, several individuals of Ph. teleius were observed in sites near Angofa, thus the reintroduction effort for this species can be considered successful.
Annual activity report for 2023
This year, we successfully completed the Annual activity report for the year 2023. Our ambition in creating it is to provide a comprehensive overview to our supporters, benefactors, and the general public about our activities throughout the year 2023.