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In 2024, the implementation of the project “Comprehensive project for the adaptation of forests and forestry to climate change – small retention and counteracting water erosion in mountain areas – continuation (MRG3)” began, coordinated by the Coordination Centre of Environmental Projects and co-financed by the European Union under the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment 2021–2027 program. As part of the initiative, a call for a substantive partner was announced, which was won by the Wetlands Conservation Centre.

The goal of the project is to increase the resilience of mountain forest ecosystems to the effects of climate change by implementing actions that promote water retention in the landscape. It continues earlier initiatives carried out by the Coordination Centre of Environmental Projects in previous years.

The current edition includes, among others, the expansion and modernization of small retention reservoirs and the restoration of wetland habitats. The project involves forest districts belonging to four Regional Directorates of State Forests: Katowice, Kraków, Krosno, and Wrocław.

The Wetlands Conservation Centre has been involved in the project from the planning stage. Experts supported the forest districts in selecting locations and specific actions to be implemented. Subsequently, the forest districts prepare the necessary documentation for implementation – depending on the case, a concept and/or a design. The experts will review part of the prepared documentation and monitor selected investments during implementation to ensure that the activities are carried out in accordance with the project’s assumptions.

Furthermore, the Wetlands Conservation Centre will conduct educational activities aimed at promoting good practices and methods of wetland conservation in forests. The target audience for these activities consists mainly of foresters.

Project website

The project is financed under the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment 2021–2027 program.

Project number: FENX.02.04-IW.01-0065/24

Project duration: July 2024 – December 2028

Coordinating beneficiary: Coordination Centre of Environmental Projects

Partners: Wetlands Conservation Centre, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Total project budget: PLN 302,880,000

Total EU co-financing: PLN 190,666,320

Wetlands Conservation Centre budget within the project: PLN 214,000

EU co-financing for the Wetlands Conservation Centre: PLN 170,579.40

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Stream in the Strzyżów Forest District

Old damaged embankment in the Krzeszowice Forest District

Stream valley in the Gorlice Forest District

The goal of the project was to network scientists and practitioners from different European countries to exchange knowledge, experience, and different points of view, which should facilitate and accelerate cooperation for the conservation and restoration of wetlands in Poland, other countries, and at a regional level.

The Wetland Summer School had the formula of a 7-day field trip (June 26 - July 2, 2024) of various peatlands in Podlasie. Five scientists and practitioners, top-class specialists involved in the conservation and restoration of peatlands described above, ran the School. 

We dedicated the 2024 Wetland Summer School to practitioners and researchers in the field of wetland conservation and restoration who have (or can have in the future) a significant impact on the condition of these ecosystems. Staff members of non-governmental organisations and nature conservation administration, scientists and PhD students were welcomed. We wanted them to be people who had the opportunity to use the acquired knowledge in practice. We marked the above requirements in the recruitment announcement and verified them by assessing the submitted applications. As a result, we received 44 applications, the quality of which was so high that we decided to increase the maximum number of School participants from the initially planned 20 to 25.

Call for applications

We visited, among others, the Rospuda Valley and other peatlands of the Augustów Forest, the Biebrza National Park, the Narew National Park and the surroundings of the Białowieża Forest. We travelled by bus and stayed overnight in four different tourist facilities. We spent most of our time in the field, learning about various aspects of the diversity of wetland ecosystems, their degradation processes, research methods, carrying out protective activities and assessing their effects.

The School didn't aim only at one-sided knowledge transfer but also at networking and exchanging knowledge and experiences between all participants. In the evenings, we listened to short lectures, and the School participants presented their activities (projects, research, legal issues, etc.) related to wetlands. Discussions accompanied the speeches.

During the training, 25 participants developed their knowledge of the functioning of wetland ecosystems and their role in shaping the climate, biology and ecology of the plant and animal species associated with them. They learned about the causes of their degradation and understand its effects. Training participants also learned about methods of protection and restoration of wetland ecosystems and the conditions for their implementation. 

Participants met managers of protected areas and people responsible for the implementation of the active protection program.

The team conducting the training

Wiktor Kotowski – doctor of biological sciences and professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Wiktor works at the Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection at the Faculty of Biology. The core of his research has been the ecological foundations of nature conservation and restoration of lowland peatlands and attempts to find ecosystem solutions when planning their protection strategies. For years, together with a group of colleagues from his research group, he has been fascinated with discovering the potential of the functional ecology workshop - based on the analysis of the functional characteristics of species and their diversity in biocoenosis. He researches the stability and resistance of low peat bogs to climate change (MIRACLE project), the conditions of peat-forming processes and the possibilities of their restoration in the context of mitigating climate warming (RePeat project), as well as the role of riverside wetlands in water purification and preventing eutrophication of rivers in agricultural catchments (project CLEARANCE). Since 2002, he has been a founding member and a member of the association's board of the Wetlands Conservation Centre.

Łukasz Kozub – doctor of biological sciences. Łukasz is a graduate of the Interfaculty Environmental Protection Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. He works at the Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection at the Faculty of Biology. Professionally, he deals with the ecology of non-forest vegetation (peat bogs, meadows, grasslands), biodiversity and the factors shaping it, nature protection (with particular emphasis on active nature conservation methods), ecosystem restoration and its ecological foundations. Since 2010, he has been a member of the management board of the Wetlands Conservation Centre.

Dominik Henrik Zak – professor. Dominik works at the Department of Ecoscience – Catchment Science and Environmental Management at the Aarhus University, Denmark. He is also a guest scientist at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, Germany. He has 20 years’ experience in freshwater-related environmental research, land use change and restoration. He is strongly dedicated to interdisciplinary research integrating biology, ecology, microbiology and hydrochemistry across aquatic and terrestrial systems. His knowledge extends to a range of biogeochemical processes, matter fluxes and nutrient dynamics in wetlands concerning the cycles of phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur and iron. This includes work at various spatial and temporal scales – from micro-zones in laboratory microcosms to large-scale field sampling campaigns in lakes, peatlands and river networks. The aim is to help to mitigate human impacts, conserve vital resources and decelerate detrimental anthropogenic global change more efficiently. 

Mariusz Lamentowicz – professor. Mariusz is the head of the Climate Change Ecology Research Unit at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, studying past environmental changes and present global change processes. He used to work on the material from wetlands of the different parts of the World – Siberia, Central America, Amazonia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, China, Japan as well as recently Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Mariusz is a leading expert in peatland palaeoecology and testate amoebae (Protista) – single-celled organisms. He is an expert in testate amoebae (Protista) – single-celled organisms, which have complicated systematics, and thus it is extremely important to collaborate with scientists involved in the morphology and taxonomy of amoebae, as well as molecular biology. His important achievement is an initiation of multidisciplinary research on the impact of climate change on peatlands by the integration of monitoring, experiment and paleoecology. Such a simultaneous combination of research on peatlands did not exist previously in CE Europe and it is very rare in the world. Interdisciplinary research was possible due to the establishment of the international research team and then his team at AMU – Climate Change Ecology Research Unit. His research interests are focused on ecology and long-term ecology of wetlands with a special focus on ​climate change. His is applying the experimental and palaeoecological approaches to better understand the present and past global change. Current projects synthesise historical geography and archaeology with palaeoecological perspectives.

Michał Korniluk – doctor of biological sciences, naturalist and ornithologist. Michał completed his PhD at the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His main research interests focus on behavioural ecology, especially in the habitat selection processes, bird mating systems and migration. He serves as a member of the management board of the Natura International Polska Foundation, where he is also responsible for scientific and monitoring activities. He participated in the preparation and implementation of numerous projects regarding the protection of waders. Currently, he works on the LIFE project "Implementation of the National Program for the Protection of Great Snipe in Poland - stage I", in which he is responsible for coordinating research, purchasing land and actively protecting the habitats of waders. On behalf of the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds, he coordinates the monitoring of the great snipe in Poland as part of the Polish Bird Monitoring carried out by the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection.

The participants

Among the 25 training participants, we had 13 scientists (Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Jagiellonian University, University of Łódź, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, University of Greifswald, Thuenen Institute for Climate Smart Agriculture, Tallinn University of Technology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, University of Lisbon, Michigan State University), 7 representatives of NGOs (Wetlands Conservation Centre, Polish Society for the Protection of Birds, Succow Foundation, Greifswald Mire Centre, Frankfurt Zoological Society, UNDP Ukraine, Constructed Wetland Association), and 5 employees of nature protection administration (General Directorate for Environmental Protection, Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Gdańsk, Regional Directorate of State Forests in Poznań, Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve, Donauauen National Park).

The project was financed by the Climate Fund of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Photos from the 2024 edition of the Wetland Summer School: