Intensively managed fishponds are considered the most important breeding habitat for waterbirds as nesting sites as well as for rearing of young in central Europe. In recent decades, pervasive environmental change (incl. climate change) has deeply impacted waterbirds’ population dynamics across their breeding distribution. Most key drivers of population change, such as reproduction success, are strongly dependent on breeding site environmental conditions. The lack of suitable nesting sites, therefore, leads to both inter- and intra-specific competition for this critical resource, with far-reaching consequences for the population dynamics of many species.

In this context, this project aims to increase the ecological value of manmade wetlands (i.e. fishponds) by creating new suitable nesting sites and enhancing the ecological conditions of fish ponds to meet the breeding requirement of a group of selected waterbird species  (Mallard, Gadwall, Red-crested Pochard, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gull and Common Tern). The intervention proposed in this project consists in the implementation of a network of floating artificial islands in intensively managed fishponds through Nature-based Solutions (NbS). These breeding islands will directly provide the actual requirements needed by waterbirds to breed on but, importantly, will also create and enhance the entire local ecosystem by supporting the macrophyte vegetation and provide suitable habitat for the development of other freshwater organisms, such as microorganisms, aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, and fishes.