Impact of agri-environmental schemes

About the project

In 2010, on the basis of a partnership agreement with the Institute of Soil Science and Cultivation (IUNG-PIB) in Puławy, OTOP launched the project "KIK/25 Protection of species diversity of valuable natural habitats on agricultural lands in Natura 2000 sites of the Lublin Voivodeship”, the aim of which is to evaluate the impact of agri-environmental schemes on birds, as well as spiders and plant communities. The project is funded by the Swiss Contribution financial mechanism. Results of this project could be especially important since there is still shortage of data on the effectiveness of the current agri-environmental schemes, and hence also of knowledge on how their requirements should be modified in the future. The benefits of the project were:

• carrying out field research aiming at assessment of the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes in a large area,
• comprehensive approach, involving studying several groups of organisms in the same area;
• long-term duration (the project was conducted between 2011-2016).


Scope of survey

OTOP is responsible for the ornithological component of the project. The survey is carried out in the valleys of the rivers: Bug, Wieprz and Tyśmienica, and in the Polesie Lubelskie region.

Surveys are performed by trained volunteers, who were given GPS devices with the location of sample plots for the complete duration of the project. In the next years we will purchase additional equipment for project collaborators.