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100% Aquatic Warbler

New handbook summarises ecology, management and conservation

14/04/2018 For twenty years the Aquatic Warbler Conservation Team (AWCT) is putting its effort into the threatened peatland species and there is quite some reason to celebrate. The team has compiled the Aquatic Warbler Conservation Handbook which was launched at the 20th anniversary celebration 12th-15th April in Brodowin (Germany). The book summarises the current knowledge on ecology, habitat management and conservation of the Aquatic Warbler including contributions of two GMC and long-term AWCT members – Franziska Tanneberger and Cosima Tegetmeyer. The AWCT is a small and informal network of experts for this mire species from almost all range countries – and a success story: Founded in 1998 in Brodowin by Martin Flade, who is its chairman until today, it promoted a Memorandum of Understanding for the protection of the globally threatened Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola) under the Bonn Convention (CMS), which was signed in 2003. The team has initiated 8 EU LIFE projects targeting the species’ conservation as well as numerous other projects. Annual AWCT expeditions to breeding or wintering sites are a tradition since the very beginning and help to form a dedicated, inspiring team.