Urgent conservation issues gathered Aquatic Warbler experts in Nemunas Delta

The crash of Hungarian population was one of the main reasons for the last meeting of experts from most of the species Range States. The meeting took place in Lithuania from 10th till 11th November 2011.

First of all the most pending issues were raised as follows:

• Decline of peripheral populations (Pomeranian, Hungarian, Lithuanian)
• Further work in wintering grounds under currently bad security conditions in Mali.
• Ensuring protection of wintering site in Senegal, where aquatic warbler occupies areas mostly outside of Djoudj National Park and the habitat is threatened by agricultural transformation.
• Need of large scale vegetation management in breeding sites.

The experts also discussed unification of monitoring methodology and further development of the species GIS database. In addition, updates on currently implemented projects were performed and future active conservation measures were planned.

The meeting took place in Nemunas Delta, the biggest AW breeding site in Lithuania and was kindly hosted by AW LIFE+ Project in this country. Aquatic Warbler Conservation Team got familiar with Project activities and implemented advisory visits to Lithuanian breeding sites. Relevant management recommendations were provided to the Project team.