Natuurpunt Beheer: Establishment of protected areas in Lviv areas and adjacent territories for the conservation of wetlands

Natuurpunt Beheer:

April, 2024 – February, 2025

Urban wetlands or ‘city blue zones’ are part of green urban infrastructure and are critical natural climate buffers. It includes ponds, small lakes, rivers, streams and springs. They make urban areas more livable by reducing the impacts of flooding, diminishing the urban heat island effect, filtering stormwater, replenishing groundwater, improving air and water quality, and providing green spaces needed by people and wildlife alike in areas often dominated by development and impervious surfaces. And sometimes even a source of quality drinking water. Yet local communities usually need to be made aware of the benefits urban wetlands provide or could provide. Government officials often view them as being too degraded or facing too many stressors to be prioritised for restoration or protection under programmes with limited resources. As a result, these critical resources are more often addressed for industrial development, limiting or damaging the benefits they provide to urban communities.

The location of Lviv city in the area of the Main European watershed between the Black and Baltic Seas caused the dominance of an extensive network of small rivers and streams on its territory. They feed such trans-European rivers as the Western Bug and the Dnister, becoming the primary link in the activity of the watercourses of large catchments and significantly influencing their functioning. The 82 registered natural small lakes of Lviv city are not allowed officially for public swimming due to water quality. 90% of all city wetlands are degraded or  almost disappeared.

Search for valuable wetland sites on urban and suburban lands of the Lviv city territorial community, as well as on the adjacent territories of the Lviv region, which includes

1. conducting field ecological, botanical, zoological, etc. studies to assess the condition of the wetland sites;
2. identification of the most valuable sites in nature conservation and sustainable  terms based on the results of comprehensive studies;
3. prepare a scientific justification for the inclusion of the most valuable sites into the protected areas;
4. provide communication support for the project.