IUCN European Programme BUG RIVER VALLEY AS THE ECOLOGICAL CORRIDOR STATE – THREATS – PROTECTION Edited by Andrzej Dombrowski Zygmunt G³owacki Ivan Kovalchuk Michail Nikiforov Zdzis³aw Michalczyk Wojciech Szwajgier Krzysztof H. Wojciechowski Authors’ team Sebastian Bernat, Pawe³ Czubla, Andrzej Dombrowski, Zygmunt G³owacki, Dzmiter Golod, Igor Gorban, Rados³aw Janicki, Ivan Kovalchuk, Aleksander Makarewicz, Pawe³ Marciniuk, Michail Nikiforov, Zdzis³aw Michalczyk, Ma³gorzata Piotrowska, Joanna Piszcz, Wojciech Szwajgier, Marek Turczyñski, Danuta Urban, Marek Wierzba, Krzysztof H. Wojciechowski, Mychajlo Zahulskij Project coordination Zenon Tederko IUCN Office for Central Europe (Foundation IUCN Poland) Warsaw 2002 The views of the authors expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN. Neither do the presentation of material and geographical designations employed imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Published by: IUCN Office for Central Europe (Foundation IUCN Poland) Foundation IUCN Poland Copyright: (2002) IUCN – The World Conservation Union and IUCN Office for Central Europe (Foundation IUCN Poland) Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without permission from the copyright holder. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without the prior written permission of the copyright holder ISBN: 2-8317-0627-0 Cartographic design: Ma³gorzata Smogorzewska, Jolanta Wójcik and Grzegorz R¹kowski – Institute for Environmental Protection in Warsaw; Tomasz Furtak, Wojciech Sobolewski, Marek Turczyñski – University of M.Curie-Sk³odowska in Lublin; Wojciech Jakubowski – Institute for Physical and Urban Economy in Warsaw; English-language edition by: Barbara Diehl, Joanna Piszcz and Robert Klein Cover graphs by: Hanna Michalik Page layout by: W-TEAM, Marek J.WoŸniak & Jan Woreczko Printed by: Pracownia Poligraficzna ARWIL s.c., Warszawa, ul. Czereœniowa 16 Available from: Foundation IUCN Poland ul. Narbutta 40/21, 02-541 Warszawa, Poland This project has been carried out with support from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MATRA Fund/Programme International Nature Management) This project has been coordinated from the Dutch side by ALTERA, Green World Research IUCN The World Conservation Union This project has been coordinated from the IUCN side by the IUCN Office for Central Europe The Institute for Forestry and Nature Research (IBN-DLO) and Foundation IUCN Poland acting as IUCN Office for Central Europe would like, on behave of experts teams in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, to express their gratitude to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries of The Netherlands for its financial support for the project administered by IUCN – The World Conservation Union. Table of Contents Table of Contents From the Publisher – Zenon Tederko ....................XI Introduction from Project Leader – Jan Veen ...............XIII International cooperation between the Netherlands and Poland .....XIII European rivers . ....................XIII From threat to protection . ..................XIV I. Introduction from the Editors .......................1 II. Physiographical characterization of the Bug river valley and its basin – Wojciech Szwajgier, Ivan Kovalchuk, Zdzis³aw Michalczyk, Marek Turczyñski.............................5 The location and general characteristics of the basin ............5 Major components of the Bug river valley relief ..............9 Volynian-Podolian reach of the Bug river valley .....................9 Polesie part of the Bug river valley ............................9 Podlasie Lowland ....................................16 North-Mazovian Lowland and Middle-Mazovian Lowland ...............18 Bibliography ...............................21 III. Hydrological characteristic of the Bug river basin and the water quality – Zdzis³aw Michalczyk, Ivan Kovalchuk, Aleksander Makarewicz, Joanna Piszcz, Marek Turczyñski ....................23 Groundwaters ..............................23 The average runoff from the Bug river basin ...............25 Spatial diversity of discharges and runoff . .............27 Characteristic water stages and rivers’ discharges.............30 Physico-chemical properties of the water .................31 Evaluation of the water quality of the Bug river .............32 VII IUCN Office for Central Europe Evaluation of the water quality of the Bug river tributaries in 1997 (based on the papers of Bo¿ek et al. [1998]) ................36 Economic use of water ..........................38 Bibliography ...............................39 IV. Management elements in the Bug river valley – Krzysztof H. Wojciechowski, Sebastian Bernat, Pawe³ Czubla, Rados³aw Janicki ............................41 Hydrotechnical and transportation development .............41 Land use and management elements of the selected sections of the Bug river valley ..........................45 Volhynian-Podolian Section ...............................45 Polesie Section .....................................48 Podlaski Section.....................................52 The Lower Bug river valley ...............................56 Bibliography ...............................59 V. Plant cover of the Bug river valley and major threats – Zygmunt G³owacki, Dzmiter Golod, Pawe³ Marciniuk, Danuta Urban, Marek Wierzba, Mychajlo Zahulskij ...........................61 General characteristic of flora. ...............61 Floristic peculiarity of particular sections of the Bug river valley .....64 Characteristics and plant communities of the Bug river valley ......67 Threats to the plant cover of the Bug river valley .............70 Bibliography ...............................71 Appendix: Selected vascular flora species in the Bug river valley ......73 Appendix: Selected vascular flora species in the Bug river valley .....73 VI. General characteristics of the fauna and the major threats – Andrzej Dombrowski...........................79 Bibliography ...............................84 VII. Status and threats to avifauna – Andrzej Dombrowski, Ma³gorzata Piotrowska, Igor Gorban, Michail Nikiforov.........87 Valorization of breeding habitats for birds ................94 Avifaunal valorization of the Bug from the springs to the mouth ............96 Bibliography ..............................101 VIII. Strategy for the protection of natural values of the Bug valley ....103 Objectives and implementation of the protection of natural val- ues of the Bug valley – Andrzej Dombrowski ...............103 Objectives .......................................103 Recommendations ...................................104 Optimization of management for conservation of the vegetation – Zygmunt G³owacki, Marek Wierzba, Pawe³ Marciniuk ............109 Recommendations for active protection of fauna – Andrzej Dombrowski. 111 VIII Table of Contents Concept of an Ecological Network of Protected Areas – Andrzej Dombrowski, Zygmunt G³owacki, Igor Gorban, Pawe³ Marciniuk, Michail Nikiforov, Danuta Urban, Marek Wierzba ......................115 Bug River National Park ................................115 Nature reserves ....................................116 Landscape parks ....................................118 Possibility of using structural funds of the European Community to retain extensive agriculture in the Bug valley – Andrzej Dombrowski ...121 Annexes: Project Expert Team .......................125 Illustrations ................................131 IX From the Publisher From the Publisher InFrom the the early Publisher 1990s IUCN – The World Conservation Union has began to develop a new ini- tiative which took into account the need to create an integrated pan-European system con- cerned with the conservation of the natural heritage of the whole continent. In November 1993, at the International Conference “Conserving Europe’s Natural Heri- tage – Towards a European Ecological Network” in Maastricht, under the auspices of the European Commission, the General-Secretariat of the Council of Europe and by IUCN – The World Conservation Union, participants gave their full approval of the concept of European Ecological Network (EECONET) in the Conference Declaration. The Ministerial Conference in Sofia in 1995 has adopted The Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, with among others Action Team 1 – Establishing the Pan-European Ecological Network and Action Team 6 – River ecosystems and related wetlands. Under the latest, eight rivers in Europe, among others Vistula and Bug river, were listed as river ecological corridors of major importance for establishing and function- ing of the Pan-European Ecological Network. In support of the above mentioned initiatives, in 1993 the IUCN European Programme started series of projects to develop National Ecological Networks (ECONETs) in four Easter European countries (Hungary, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics), a well as to evaluate the status of rivers ecosystem conservation in Central and Eastern Europe. As a result several reports have been published, among others, “Vistula as an Ecological Corridor. State – Functioning – Threats” (1995) and “Odra as an Ecological Corridor. State – Functioning – Threats” (1995), River Corridors in Hungary (1995). In 1997, IUCN Office for Central Europe