Rezultati monitoringa ptica u Specijalnom rezervatu prirode "Slano Kopovo" od 2021. do 2023. godine

In the contemporary concept of nature preservation, the preservation of geodiversity slowly becomes normative, although geodiversity is still considered as a geotope in the function of biotope. Because of that it was analyzed geodiversity in the protected areas and the areas earmarked for protection in the Western Bačka Danube Region, in refer to five municipalities along the Danube (Sombor, Apatin, Odžaci, Bač and Bačka Palanka). Selected area is recognized by two protected natural assets - special nature reserve 'Gornje Podunavlje' (Upper Danube Basin) and 'Karađorđevo' represent unique wetland of flood plains in the Danube Region. Within the scope of its main values, it hasn't been selected many localities that are typical for plain morphology. Within the scope of geodiversity of the region, 11 sites belong to the potentially protected areas, differing in type, genesis and morphology. A better approach to their evaluation can be achieved by a local action plan for geodiversity.

Wildfires represent one of the most dangerous hazards to vegetation. Although they can result from natural factors, the majority of wildfires are caused by human activity. In Serbia, most fires originate from agricultural burning and subsequently spread to forests and protected areas. This study focuses on a wildfire that occurred near the Special Nature Reserve (SNR) ?Carska Bara? in October 2018. SNR ?Carska Bara? is located in Vojvodina, northern Serbia. Based on Sentinel-2A satellite imagery and reflectance in the NIR and SWIR2 bands, the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) index was calculated in GIS environment. The dNBR values were reclassified into five categories, where lower pixel values represent areas with lower burn severity, while higher values indicate higher intensity of wildfire. The high-severity category covers 0.09% of the SNR territory, moderate-high severity 4.91%, and moderate-low severity 7.49% of the territory. The category of low severity covers 39.13% of the territory, while unburned areas account for nearly half of SNR ?Carska Bara? (48.38%). The study results highlight the significance of GIS and remote sensing in wildfire detection and damage assessment in protected areas. Effective wildfire risk reduction requires prohibition of illegal agricultural burning and implementation of early warning systems that provide timely fire alerts.

Since 2020, the "Osredak" Special Nature Reserve has been a protected natural area of the Republic of Serbia, of regional, i.e. great importance. It is situated in central Serbia, along both banks of the West Morava. The area was designated as protected in order to conserve the bog habitats of the Morava River valley, as well as old bayous, ponds and lakes, which were created by decades of gravel extraction. The public-utility company "Kruševac" manages this area, and at its request, cooperation was established with the Istitute for fodder crops Kruševac in order to update the Reserve's flora inventory, with an emphasis on protected plant species, but also on invasive alien species. A list of all plant taxa that have been recorded in the Reserve so far (169 species) and specific solutions that might contribute to the conservation and improvement of natural values of the "Osredak" special nature reserve have also been included in this paper.

Important Bird Areas in Macedonia: Sites of Global and European Importance

Ecotourism is a nature-based type of tourism, especially represented within protected areas. No matter the fact, just like the other selective types of this sector, ecotourism might affect the environment. In a process of writing the Visitor Management Plan in the Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve (SNR) in 2019, one part of the study was related to general projection of the ecotourism development impact on eco-educational paths within this SNR. The research was conducted throughout November 2019, in the form of interviews. The sample obtained 12 experts for nature protection, who stated their attitudes on three important topics: tourism in protected areas in general, tourism in the Gornje Podunavlje SNR and ecotourism within three concrete sites: Karapandža, Štrbac and Bestrement.

In the northern part of Serbia, where the Autonomous Province (AP) of Vojvodina is located, a total of 27 important plant areas (IPAs) have been established. Within three selected IPAs, there are different biocenoses inhabited by endemic plant and animal species, which form a unique sensitive ecosystem. Furthermore, in these areas, there are wetlands and areas important for geodiversity maintenance. The three studied IPAs include the territory of special nature reserves of the same name: the Special Nature Reserve (SNR) Zasavica, the SNR Obedska Bara, and the SNR Koviljsko-Petrovaradinski Rit. In these selected protected areas, tourist activities are carried out at different levels of development and through various forms of tourism. This research used quantitative methodology to examine the degree of sustainable tourism development and its impact on residents. A total of 1134 respondents were surveyed using a questionnaire as an instrument. The obtained results indicate that the selected IPAs can be destinations for sustainable tourism development. Ecological and sociocultural dimensions of sustainability contribute to this type of tourism to the greatest extent. Analyzing the data related to the impact of sustainable tourism on the respondents’ satisfaction, we concluded that they feel a certain satisfaction with sustainable tourism in all three investigated protected areas. The survey results called attention to the possibility of developing nature-based forms of tourism, in which the residents’ role in tourism planning and development should be strengthened. All forms of tourism that are developed here should have the primary goal of protecting nature in these IPAs.

The Special Nature Reserve “Titelski Breg” (TB) is a protected area (PA) of category I, located in the AP of Vojvodina in the south-eastern part of Bačka. The reserve covers an area of 496 ha. A protection zone covering an area of 8643 ha has been established around the PA. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) states that this PA is classified as a category IV habitat and species management area. Its good geographical and traffic position and close distance to Romania and Hungary, as well as the nation’s major cities, make this PA accessible to a sizable number of both domestic and foreign tourists. There are numerous plant and animal species in the reserve, which makes this area unique. The population living around this reserve has an exceptional and valuable cultural heritage, which represents significant complementary tourist motives. To examine the state of sustainable tourism (SuT) in TB and the impact of SuT on the satisfaction of the respondents (SoR), the PoS model of study was used. The quantitative methodology in this research included a questionnaire as the survey instrument for residents and visitors. There were 630 respondents altogether (400 locals and 230 guests). Four aspects of sustainability, economic, social, cultural, and institutional, were used to analyze the state of SuT in this PA. The study’s findings show that SuT significantly affected the SoR. Analyzing the role that additional protected areas may have in SuT can be supported by the research outcomes. Additionally, the proportion of each sustainability characteristic in SuT can suggest guidelines for national programs that aim to develop PAs and tourist development at the same time.

One of the most complex issues in a protected area (PA) management is the provision of adequate financial resources. Managers of PAs in Serbia are financed from several different sources: budget through the allocation of subsidies, fees for the PAs use, revenues generated through the business operating and management, funds provided for project implementation, donations, gifts, aids, etc. Public enterprise (PE) "Vojvodinasume" is the manager of 16 and the user of 19 PAs in the territory of Vojvodina. In this paper, two research goals are defined. The first goal refers to the determination of a statistically significant difference in the sources of subsidies according to the selected PAs, and those are special nature reserves: ?Obedska bara?, ?Koviljsko-petrovaradinski rit?, ?Bagremara?, ?Gornje Podunavlje? and ?Deliblatska pescara?. The second goal is the determination of a statistically significant difference in the areas of subsidising, related to the selected PAs. In this paper, PE ?Vojvodinasume? internal data for the period 2009-2019 were used. The research has determined funds provided by the national and provincial budgets as the most important sources of subsidies for the observed PAs. Concerning the areas of subsidising, most of the funds were allocated for the monitoring and improvement of the PAs conditions, which determined PE ?Vojvodinasume? for taking an active approach to nature conservation.

The paper presents the results of a survey conducted among the population of two protected areas (PAs) in Serbia − the Carska Bara Special Nature Reserve (SNR) and the Vlasina Outstanding Natural Landscape (ONL). The aim was to determine whether the proclamation of a protected area affects the daily life and economy of the local population and how much the local community is involved in the management process? Emphasizing tourism as the only sustainable activity suitable for protected areas, a survey was conducted. The two areas analyzed here were chosen due to the proximity of settlements, i.e. their presence in the area of protected property, the still present traditional way of using natural resources (grazing, beekeeping, collecting mushrooms, snails and fruits, exploitation of mineral raw materials, fish farming) and the use of wild flora and fauna (mowing meadows, use of reeds and rushes), and length of tenure under protection. An additional point of interest is the fact that one of them is a plain and the other is a mountainous area. The perception of the local residents about life in the protected area, their future plans and the manager, were obtained. Respondents answered questions concerning their perception of everyday life in a protected area. Do they have personal benefit or harm? Are they engaged in tourism? Can they make a decent living from tourism? Is the number of visitors is higher after obtaining the protected status? Who is the manager and is he caring more about nature or the needs of the local population? The survey included 474 residents older than 18, in five settlements of the Carska Bara Special Nature Reserve and in seven settlements of the Vlasina Outstanding Natural Landscape. 39.0% women and 61.0% males made up the sample. The respondents’ average age was 40.8 years old. The majority of those surveyed belonged to the employee category. Responses were analyzed using descriptive demographic statistics, with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The obtained results are quite pessimistic, because they confirm the initial assumption that the population of protected areas in Serbia has very little or no benefit at all from living near a protected area.

Migratory waterbirds require an effectively conserved cohesive network of wetland areas throughout their range and life-cycle. Under rapid climate change, protected area (PA) networks need to be able to accommodate climate-driven range shifts in wildlife if they are to continue to be effective in the future. Thus, we investigated geographical variation in the relationship between local temperature anomaly and the abundance of 61 waterbird species during the wintering season across Europe and North Africa during 1990–2015. We also compared the spatio-temporal effects on abundance of sites designated as PAs, Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs), both, or neither designation (Unlisted). Waterbird abundance was positively correlated with temperature anomaly, with this pattern being strongest towards north and east Europe. Waterbird abundance was higher inside IBAs, whether they were legally protected or not. Trends in waterbird abundance were also consistently more positive inside both protected and unprotected IBAs across the whole study region, and were positive in Unlisted wetlands in southwestern Europe and North Africa. These results suggest that IBAs are important sites for wintering waterbirds, but also that populations are shifting to unprotected wetlands (some of which are IBAs). Such IBAs may therefore represent robust candidate sites to expand the network of legally protected wetlands under climate change in north-eastern Europe. These results underscore the need for monitoring to understand how the effectiveness of site networks is changing under climate change.

• Governments have committed to conserve effectively 17% of terrestrial (and inland water) areas by 2020, ‘especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity…’ • The 11,000 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and 588 Alliance for Zero Extinction sites (AZEs) are the only networks of systematically sites of biodiversity importance that have been identified worldwide, but only 28% and 22% respectively have been completely covered by protected areas, and half remain entirely unprotected • Expansion of protected area networks and other site safeguard mechanisms to cover all partially protected or unprotected AZEs and IBAs would add a further 4.6 million km2, increasing terrestrial coverage from 12.9% to 17.5%, and hence meeting the 17% coverage target. • Data from Kenya derived from monitoring of the state (condition), pressures (threats) and conservation responses at IBAs highlight the association between protection and improved condition, reduced pressures and greater responses. • This is consistent with global analyses of the IUCN Red List Index showing that protection of IBAs and AZEs is associated with a reduction in the rate of decline in status (i.e. increase in extinction risk) of species for which these sites are identified • IBAs and AZEs are among the most urgent targets for protected area network expansion, while tracking state, pressure, and response indicators as demonstrated through IBA monitoring can contribute to monitoring of the management effectiveness of such protected areas

Previous laboratory studies have shown that Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus), Wilson’s Phalarope (P. tricolor), Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri), and Least Sandpiper (C. minutilla) use the surface tension of water surrounding a prey item to transport it from bill tip to mouth. Although such experimental work suggests that many species of shorebird may be capable of surface-tension feeding, no field studies have been done that examine this possibility. We studied the occurrence and interspecific variation in the performance of surface-tension transport (STT) in wild shorebirds feeding on identical prey items in shallow water. All shorebirds videotaped—Little Stint (C. minuta), Dunlin (C. alpina), Sanderling (C. alba), Curlew Sandpiper (C. ferruginea), Common Redshank (Tringa totanus), and Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)—used STT to feed on small prey items. Individuals employing STT used one or several cycles of jaw spreading to transport the prey contained in a drop of water upward along the bill cavity, an action indicative of STT. Two distinct types of prey transport were observed: (1) use of STT in isolation by calidridine species following the description given in previous studies (i.e., an absence of other feeding mechanisms such as tongue movements, suction, or inertial transport), and (2) STT aided by inertial transport (head jerks) as seen in Common Redshank and Black-winged Stilt. Measured prey-transport variables (number of cycles, total time, and speed of transport) varied among species. The absence of significant relationships between these variables and measures of external morphology (bill length, bill length-to-width ratio, and bill length-to-depth ratio) suggests that some interspecific variations in STT performance may be attributable to differences in internal bill morphology. We show that STT is a common feeding mechanism in small or medium- sized shorebird species that feed on small prey items in shallow water. Birds using STT transported ≤3.6× faster than the theoretical value predicted by a previous model and can achieve high intake rates when foraging on high densities of available small prey items.Ventajas de las Presas Pequeñas: Análisis de Campo del Uso de la Tensión Superficial del Agua por las Aves Playeras para Transportar las Presas

An attempt is made to identify Key Biodiversity Areas in the Republic of Macedonia through the identification of internationally recognized important areas for biodiversity: Important Plant Areas (IPAs) and Important Bird Areas (IBAs). Forty two IPAs covering 6,495km2 and 24 IBAs covering 6,907km2 have been identified in Macedonia. Thirty seven IPAs (6,152km2 or 24% of the country’s territory) and 15 IBAs (4,821km2 or 18.75% of the national territory), meet KBA criteria, between them yielding 42 KBAs. The remaining five IPAs and nine IBAs do not meet KBA criteria although have international significance. Together IPAs and IBAs total 10,698km2; those meeting the KBA criteria total 9,670km2. In total, 73% and 65% of the entire national protected areas (PAs) surface overlaps with IPAs and IBAs respectively. This proportion is 81% for the 42 KBAs. However, only 25% of the total size of protected areas overlaps with IPAs, only 21% overlap with IBAs, and only 19% with the combined 42 KBAs. This means that Macedonia’s protected areas system is not yet representative and comprehensive for safeguarding its botanical and avian diversity.

The Special Nature Reserve “Kraljevac” (RK) is located in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in southern Banat. This first-category reserve covers an area of 264.3 ha and represents a natural item of exceptional importance. The reserve is characterized by significant geological heritage such as loess sections and dune relief, a lake with famous floating peat islands that form the physiology of this wetland, and very rare representatives of flora and fauna. The RK is characterized by the rich cultural heritage of the population living in South Banat. The different ethnic composition of the population and multiculturalism are the main sociocultural tourist motives of this protected area. The Deliblato Sands, known in Europe for their rare geological features, flora and fauna, are located in the immediate vicinity. This significantly increases the value of the RK. Quantitative methodology was used in the paper, which included interviewing respondents as a research technique. The research was conceived according to the Prism of Sustainability (PoS) model. For this sustainable tourism research, a total of 750 respondents (470 residents and 280 visitors) were surveyed. A written and online questionnaire was used in the survey of respondents. By using a questionnaire, respondents expressed their views on certain statements that were grouped into two categories. The claims refer to the natural and sociocultural factors of tourism development in this protected area. Both categories of tourism destination factors can significantly influence sustainable tourism. In addition, we examined the impact of sociocultural and natural factors on respondents’ satisfaction with sustainable tourism. The research results indicate that there is a significant influence of these factors on the satisfaction of residents and visitors with sustainable tourism. The results of this research can provide important information when planning the development of tourism in this protected area. Also, the results can help in the evolution of tourism development at the local, national and regional levels. The forms of tourism that could be central in the RK are scientific research, sports–recreational, ecotourism, bird-watching, events, cultural, gastronomic, and other tourism forms. These forms of tourism can provide environmental, economic and social benefits for this protected area as a tourism destination.

The Obedska Bara Special Nature Reserve is one of the oldest protected areas in the world, also enlisted as an Important Bird Area, Ramsar and UNESCO world heritage site. False indigo bush (Amorpha fruticosa L.) represents an invasive alien species which is significantly deteriorating the biodiversity of the Obedska Bara Special Nature Reserve in Serbia. Mapping of A. fruticosa, using an unmanned aerial vehicle and GIS tools, showed that in meadows, pastures, ponds and wetland areas, A. fruticosa covered 85ha or 11% of the area. However, coverage was uneven, and the most overgrown areas were some meadows (up to 35%), while flooded areas and areas where human impact is significant, as on pastures, were not so affected (1-3%). The most susceptible parts were forest edges. Active management practices, such as cattle grazing and topsoil tarping, and occasional moving, gave positive effects in A. fruticosa, but also other invasive terrestrial plant species spreading control in the reserve. This has also been confirmed by the UAV survey and mapping, which has proven to be an effective method for A. fruticosa monitoring over large areas.