The project

Measures

Overview

LIFE Godwit Flyway aims to improve the conservation status of the Black-tailed Godwit along the East Atlantic Flyway. The project comprises measures to increase reproduction rates in Germany, and to improve the birds' return rates from their staging and wintering grounds in Portugal and West Africa. Within all project areas, the focus is on measures that optimise grassland habitats.

This is done through a bundle of measures, including raising water levels, low-intensity farming, preservation of an open landscape free of shrubs and woods, as well as predation management in the breeding sites.

Black-tailed Godwits need temporarily flat-flooded wetland areas during the breeding...
Raise water level

Black-tailed Godwits need temporarily flat-flooded wetland areas during the breeding season, but also at staging sites and in the wintering areas.

Low-intensity grassland and rice field management creates habitat structures suitable for...
Low-intensity farming

Low-intensity grassland and rice field management creates habitat structures suitable for the Black-tailed Godwit.

Black-tailed Godwits need wide open, wood-free wetlands, especially in the breeding...
Open landscape

Black-tailed Godwits need wide open, wood-free wetlands, especially in the breeding period, but also in staging and wintering sites, to be safe from perching predators.

Predation has become a new threat to ground-breeding birds. To ensure breeding success and...
Predation management

Predation has become a new threat to ground-breeding birds. To ensure breeding success and survival of Godwits, the guild of predators must be controlled.

Details about our measures

Measures in Lower Saxony

Aiming at the increase of the breeding population of Black-tailed Godwits in Lower Saxony, we focus on the two most important sites: the Special Protection Areas (SPA) Dümmer and Unterelbe. The approach is twofold and aims at i) habitat expansion and ii) habitat improvement.

It is planned to acquire 152 hectares of land at both sites combined. In addition, 30 hectares of state-owned land is to be swapped into the target area of the Dümmer SPA.

Subsequently, measures to optimise the habitats for the Black-tailed Godwit will be implemented.

The creation of optimised water levels during the breeding season by means of adjustable weirs is of the utmost importance. Shrubs and woods need to be removed and land use practices need to be converted in favour of the habitat requirements of Black-tailed Godwits.

At the Dümmer fen floodplains it is aimed to optimise water levels on 1,213 hectares in total. At the Unterelbe estuary the 77 hectares that are planned to be purchased are the precondition to open the Belumer summer dike polder for direct tidal influence. This will optimise a total of 524 ha of wet grassland.

Habitat improvement also includes predation management. In both sites a professional predator control system is set up and expanded. Native mammalian predator densities will be significantly reduced to increase survival and reproduction rates of the Black-tailed Godwit. Invasive mammalian predators like Racoon, Racoon Dog and American Mink will be eradicated in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

Measures in Portugal

The measures in Portugal are aimed at improving several wetland habitats. Our ambition is to boost the population of the Black-tailed Godwit in the Tagus estuary by optimising the attractiveness and quality of staging and wintering wetland habitats through the restoration and regulation of water levels in rice fields (300 ha), costal lagoons (71 ha) and saltpans (21 ha), together with other actions (e.g. ploughing in the rice fields and vegetation management in lagoons and saltpans).

The University of Aveiro (UA), in collaboration with the Companhia das Lezírias (CL), aims to assess food availability when ploughing at different stages of the non-breeding season, across a mosaic of flooded rice fields with varying water levels.

Furthermore, to evaluate the effectiveness of habitat manipulation and restoration, UA will implement a multifaceted approach, integrating tracking data, avian abundance, and feeding behaviour of Black-tailed Godwits across a range of management regimes.

UA will also quantify the potential impact of such actions on soil fertility and rice yield, in order to reduce farmers' dependence on fertilisers.

In collaboration with CL and local rice farmers, UA will produce guidelines outlining best practices for the management of rice fields while promoting this habitat for the Black-tailed Godwit and other waterbirds, along with an overview of the associated advantages. It will also deliver a guide on how to restore saltpans to improve their habitat quality for breeding and non-breeding waterbird species.

Measures in The Gambia

At the beginning of the project, the long-prepared process for the official designation of the Niumi Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO will be finalised. GPS-tracked Black-tailed Godwits help to identify core areas. These habitats will be visited and evaluated. Based on expert knowledge, measures for habitat improvement will be implemented.

When the most important areas of wintering Black-tailed Godwits are identified, a strategy plan will be developed to implement effective measures in the core areas of migratory birds. The Department of Parks and Wildlife Management (DPWM) assumes the role of the project coordinator on site. The implementation of measures is prepared on the basis of collaboration with local stakeholders and with the involvement of the population, aiming at sustainable implementation with a view to permanent establishment. A Gambian liason officer serves as interface between Gambian and European project partners.

Measures foreseen include rice field restoration and wetland engineering. In the species-rich mangroves, restoration measures will be carried out carefully, adapted to the needs of the target species.

A pre- and post-monitoring will show the progress and success of the measures. Ten local master students from The Gambia and Senegal will be selected and receive training in sustainable landscape design as well as data collection, data analyses, and report writing.