Jan Van der Winden

Last week I visited Ukraine and had a starting meeting with the project team in Kyev. We paid a visit to Mr. I. Ivanenko, the deputy head of the State Agency for Protected Areas from the Ministry of Environmental Protection in Ukraine. He expressed his great interest in the project as data are urgently required in the process of the proper establishment of the National Park in the Dniepr Delta. There will be three zones established in the delta: a wildlife protected zone, an economic zone and a recreational zone. We hope to include the sites of bird colonies within the boundaries of the protected zone. But so far, only botanical information is used to define the protected zones. So Mr Ivanenko welcomed the input of but bird data.

Because we are somewhat later in the timeschedule and because we noticed activities in the framework of the World Wetlands day (http://www.ramsar.org/wwd/wwd_index.htmb will be organised in Ukraine, we propose to reschedule some activities as foreseen in the project proposal:

1. November 2008 to June 2009

- a baseline report with available data on bird colonies to be used at an early stage of the National Park designation

- a visit at the world Wetlands Day at the 2nd of February for schoolchildren inhabiting the Diepr Delta area with awareness programmes

- preparation of a small booklet and flyer or poster about waterbirds in the Delta (also for this festival)

- an additional visit to the delta to collect some extra bird data and to get an impression of recreation use/pressure of the area (interviews with stakeholders)

2. July -October 2009

- preparation of the final report with propositions for the management of the Natural park

- presentation of the results and discussions with local and national authorities.

The difference with the original Project Proposal are minor. Instead of organising a separate school children festival, we prefere to use the setting of the World Wetlands day to implement our activities in the Dniepr Delta. The rest of the project aims will be identical to the proposal.

In February 2009 we visited the local communities in Golan Pristin to present information about the values of nature of the Dniepr Delta. This was in conjunction with the World Wetlands day activities in Ukraine. During these meetings, posters and flyers were distributed about red list species and colonial waterbirds and lectures were given. The ideas about conservation were discussed with the local authorities.

In June 2009, the area was visited again for an update of information of bird colonies. Some new heronries and cormorant colonies were discovered. This can be used to emphasize the important locations for birds in the area.

In October 2009 we organised a conference for all stakeholders involved in the Dnieper Delta and discussed the future possibilities of nature protection in the delta. The delta will be designated as national park by the Ukraine government and they were happy with the input from this workshop. Issues on zonation, hunting and fishing were discussed and the intention for nature conservation was clear. A draft outline of a management plan was presented by us during the seminar.

Apart from this we disseminated posters, brochures and booklets on rare birds and nature values of the delta area.

In December 2009 we visited the area again for a follow up of some discussions. The last months my counterparts prepared a Ukraine management vision for the area. We've asked them to translate the most important sections. We will disseminate this soon in hardcopy and through websites. Although it is beyond the direct products of the Rufford Grant, we foresee a meeting this year to discuss the management proposals as presented in the report. Also the Ukraine government showed their interest in the report and will consult in their designation process.

Read about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.