Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
An island in the River Danube located between kilometres 576 and 560, lying opposite Vardim village, east of the town of Svistov. Alluvial forest of
Quercus,
Ulmus and
Populus covers the eastern part of the island, while a
Populus plantation covers the western part. There are also sandbars covered by seasonally flooded forest. Human activities include intensive management of the plantation, and hunting (including international hunting tourism) during the winter.
One of the most important nesting sites in the country for
Phalacrocorax carbo,
Nycticorax nycticorax and
Platalea leucorodia. Breeding species of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria:
Phalacrocorax pygmeus (c.20 pairs before 1989, but now extinct),
Haliaeetus albicilla (1 pair before 1989, now extinct).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Problems are (1) the disturbance to nesting waterbirds caused by forestry activities near the colonies, (2) the lowered water-levels of the Danube (due to the `Iron Gate' dam in Serbia) have caused the drying-out of forest, and (3) breeding colonies have shifted outside of the protected area. The eastern part of the IBA is protected.
National Partial
International None99 ha of IBA covered by Protected Landscape (Stariat Dab, 99 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Vardim Island (Bulgaria). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/vardim-island-iba-bulgaria on 23/12/2024.
