“LIFE21-NAT-SK-LIFE 4 STEPPE BIRDS: Conservation and Return of Steppe Bird Species to the Lowlands of Slovakia” is the name of our newest LIFE project, which sets ambitious conservation goals and will help reverse the poor protection status of bird species by restoring traditional land management and grazing practices. The lead partner is SOS/BirdLife Slovakia, with BROZ, Slovak Conservation Association as an associated partner.
The project is being implemented across 9 Special Protected Areas in southern Slovakia, many of which have long been on the losing side when it comes to nature conservation. For example, the largest SPA, Dolné Považie, covers more than 34,000 hectares, yet is dominated by vast monoculture crops that offer virtually no chance of survival for rare bird species. At the same time, the Slovak Government has approved strategic nature conservation documents for these areas covering 30-year periods, setting out targets it aims to achieve to improve their conservation status. Our project directly contributes to delivering on these commitments.
Project goals:
- We will restore livestock grazing across 700 hectares. Long-neglected areas overgrown with encroaching woody vegetation will be grazed by water buffalo, cattle, horses, sheep and goats.
- We will restore meadows on waterlogged soils across 140 hectares, land that is unsuitable for conventional crop production.
- We will install 1,600 nest boxes and half-boxes for the most threatened bird species.
- We will improve conditions for declining and endangered bird species including the European roller, red-footed falcon, black-tailed godwit, common redshank, garganey, tawny pipit, lesser grey shrike, great grey shrike, European scops owl and pied avocet. Without active management and support, several of these species face local extinction in Slovakia. Their situation is in fact far more critical than that of the western capercaillie, though fortunately they are easier to help. All it takes is the will to act.
The project directly revives the traditions of the Slovak countryside, supports and promotes food self-sufficiency, and fulfills Slovakia’s international commitments on nature conservation, biodiversity and climate. It delivers on the goals of species action plans. And above all, it puts into practice what we all want to see change in Slovakia: halting the end of grazing, preventing livestock from disappearing from the landscape, and reversing the damaging consequences this would have for biodiversity and rural communities.