Wet Meadow Experimental Management

An experimental project on the restoration and management of the wet meadows of Lesser Prespa Lake, using specific techniques such as cutting and grazing with water buffalo or combinations of these, was implemented as part of this project. It aimed to investigate the effects of grazing, cutting, burning and management on the vegetation and to evaluate their productivity and nutritional value. The results prescribed the techniques and costs for the restoration and conservation of the wet meadows.

The Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) had already imported a small number of buffaloes for the needs of management experiments with grazing from Kerkini in 1997. In the same year, the local community of Agios Achillios granted a large area with reedbeds and wet meadows in which the SPP applied pilot management under this project and utilising the buffalo herd, combining cutting and grazing as well as monitoring the changes in vegetation.