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Lake Kerkini Management Authority

Lake Kerkini Management Authority is an Agency supervised by the Greek Ministry of Environment. The main objectives are biodiversity conservation and management, ecosystem services, habitat protection, law enforcement, public awareness, environmental education and planning of environmental policy in the Lake Kerkini National Park, which was established in 2006, as well as in other areas of Nature 2000 network in the region, which are under the responsibility of the Management Authority.

Lake Kerkini, which is the central part of the National Park, is an artificial lake, and one of the 10 Greek Wetlands of International Importance (also known as Ramsar Wetlands). The main priority for the National Park is the re-creation part of the riparian forest and reeds, which have been degraded over the last 35 years. These are areas where 11 species of birds are nesting in mixed colonies in great numbers, as well as the provision of appropriate nesting and roosting sites for the birds in the wetland.

In this context, the Managing Authority has made pioneering management interventions both for the re-creation of the riparian forest and reedbeds, as well as for the provision of nesting and resting places for pelicans. These interventions consist of the construction of artificial islets (for pelicans) as well as fencing and planting therein for the re-creation of a part of the riparian forest and reeds. The purpose of fencing is to exclude damage from grazing animals.

The first results of these interventions, based on the monitoring of the evolution of interventions and the evaluation of the data on their effectiveness carried out by the Management Agency, are very positive (increasing the number of nesting pairs of both species of pelicans in the National Park, planting of willow and reed seedlings etc.

Similar actions are also planned for the current programming period (2014-2020).

Contact

Theodoros Naziridis
Email: naziridis@kerkini.gr
Website: www.kerkini.gr

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