📋 Tender Overview
Start Date: 01/09/2023
End Date: 31/08/2028
Total Eligible Budget: 12,012,361 €
EU Contribution: 9,009,271 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The project addresses special habitats, unique, rare and extreme in Austria’s Natura 2000 site Neusiedler See - Nordöstliches Leithagebirge (AT1110137) has one of Central Europe’s largest contiguous inland salt areas. There, the priority habitat Pannonic salt steppes and salt marshes (1530*) is present in all natural variants covering 3.676 ha with more than 80% located in the Neusiedler See - Seewinkel National Park. The proposed project will directly influence 1.258 ha (34%). The number of soda lakes has decreased from 139 to 48 (-66%), water surface from 3.614 to 656 ha (-82%) within the last 160 years. The current conservation status of 1530* is unfavourable – bad , both in terms of the overall status and the future perspective (Art.17 report). Degradation and malfunctions in the complex life cycle of the salt habitats are mainly caused by decreased groundwater levels hindering salination processes and leading to further and often non reversible degradation. Large-scale drainage for agriculture and settlements and groundwater abstraction for agricultural irrigation led to lower groundwater levels. Tackling the problem by the source, the project aims to enhance the conservation status of the salt habitats by (1) installing 8 weirs in the drainage ditches for water retention and thus higher groundwater levels, (2) constructing a groundwater barrier to protect cellars of a nearby settlement as prerequisite, (3) securing isolated salt lakes and habitats in agricultural land, (4) restoring salt habitats (removal of IAS, reed, trees and ecological setup measures).
