Highlights of Prespa conservation in 2025

PONT and the SPP have been working together for nature in Greek Prespa since PONT’s establishment a decade ago. Read on to find out more about what we are achieving together…

Facing a changing world together

Water and wetlands have defined Prespa for millennia, but in recent years climate change has been making its impact felt amongst this rich freshwater landscape. In the past the low-lying areas around Lesser Prespa Lake were flooded in spring, creating wet meadows that provided vital feeding grounds for waterbirds and breeding areas for fish to spawn just at the time they were most needed. For many years, in partnership with local and transboundary authorities, communities and organisations, the SPP has applied nature-based solutions to restore this important habitat and super-charge the ecosystem services it freely supplies to people and nature alike. These have involved managing water levels to ensure community-agreed levels of flooding are adhered to and keeping reed vegetation in check, so that the wet meadows thrive. This same nutrient-rich vegetation provides excellent fodder for local cattle herds, benefitting the stockbreeders who nowadays have largely taken the programme of wetland grazing and mowing into their own hands, with the SPP as advisors under the auspices of the management authorities.

In recent years, however, climate change has brought drought conditions into this waterlogged haven and the wider wetland landscapes of streams supplying water to the lake, affecting farmers and wildlife in equal measure. Although grazing and mowing have continued to keep vegetation under control, wet meadows have been unable to form for several years, and in 2025 Lesser Prespa Lake came close to reaching historically low water levels. The dry conditions and natural process of succession when wetlands dry out also made mowing firebreaks to protect the spread of wildfires more difficult too.

Meanwhile, the SPP’s regular waterbird monitoring has allowed us to clearly see that these rare species are increasingly vulnerable to predator attacks, since their colonies – once virtually impregnable – are no longer surrounded by water and land-based mammals can approach much more easily. Long-term monitoring and the data it collects over decades is invaluable in understanding population trends, as well as the impacts of changing circumstances and emerging conditions.

The end of the year saw higher levels of rainfall, which may raise water levels in 2026, when PONT will continue to support the SPP in this constantly evolving cycle of work, including the multi-stakeholder Water and Wetlands Forum in the spring. Although climate change can bring many potentially disruptive or divisive challenges, solidarity in facing them together not only enriches solutions and alternatives, but also strengthens social bonds and the appreciation of nature values. This community-led committee discusses all the activities annually, based on scientific reports from the SPP that evaluate past management results, and adjusts them in response to the fluctuating conditions in an adaptive management approach.

A voice for nature – advocacy and persuasion in tandem

NGOs have an important role to play in society, especially when it comes to raising environmental awareness and advocating for changes that positively support nature and the communities that depend on it. The SPP is a strongly active communicator and nature champion, with a long history of influencing policy and institutions on behalf of Prespa, from nurturing the wetland governance scheme described above to initiating the transboundary Prespa Park and subsequent agreement on its sustainable development signed by all three states and the EU in 2010.

In 2025 the SPP worked particularly hard on influencing policy in favour of Prespa, raising awareness of climate change impacts in the basin and lobbying for greater efforts to be made in tackling the challenges facing the region and its wildlife, as well as multiple networking and partnership efforts behind the scenes to promote positive environmental outcomes for Prespa.

A special focus in recent years has been the immense value to the whole area of Prespa’s streams and river, together with the nature-rich forest that has sprung up along the shore of Great Prespa as its waters have slowly retreated. The SPP undertook to gather in-depth information, data and traditional local knowledge about these ‘green and blue lifelines’ in a series of studies, and 2025 saw the results of this effort being spread far and wide, aiming to highlight the vital importance of these sometimes under-appreciated, lesser-known linchpins of the watershed. Once beloved features of village life – whose pre-industrial value is spotlighted at the award-winning restored watermill in Agios Germanos managed by the SPP – they are also vital wildlife corridors and an all-important water supply to the lake too, especially when drought conditions are bringing unwelcome changes to our shared wetlands.

In spring, the SPP joined transboundary partners in supporting a Ramsar Advisory Mission (RAM) to the area, following concerns raised about falling lake water levels with this high-profile international advocate for wetlands. The RAM travelled around the whole basin to meet with all the relevant local, regional and national stakeholders, getting first-hand information and scientific opinions on the issues involved. The SPP accompanied the mission and particularly facilitated its visit to Greek Prespa, while also working with its PrespaNet partners to co-ordinate NGO input into the mission report. The SPP also supported a subsequent presentation of Prespa transboundary water issues at the United Nations in Geneva, and we remain hopeful that the final RAM report will provide useful leverage in lobbying for clear improvements in how Prespa’s precious water resources are managed at cross-border level.

Throughout the year the Society also led its PrespaNet partners in a co-ordinated response to the draft Strategic Action Plan (SAP) being developed at the behest of the Prespa Park Management Committee. The partners worked closely with state partners, aiming to enshrine the most effective protections for the nature and environment that are a cornerstone of the area’s sustainable progress towards a healthy and prosperous future for all. PONT and the SPP joined a chorus of local voices calling for renewed engagement in the Prespa Park process as a beacon of nature-based co-operation in the Balkans at this crucial moment for addressing mounting climate-crisis effects.

Climate change was very much on the agenda at a special autumn press visit to the majestic karstic landscape of Mount Sfika at the southern edge of Lesser Prespa. A unique geological and natural marvel, as well as a key element in the hydrology of the lakes ecosystem, Sfika is threatened by wind farm development, as are many upland landscapes that lie within the vital movement corridors of Prespa’s emblematic Dalmatian pelicans across the wider region. These large-bodied birds use many wetlands to sustain themselves and their young and travel great distances to secure their needs. The SPP was joined by the Hellenic Ornithological Society and the Society for the Protection of the Biodiversity of Thrace, whose voices on behalf of Greece’s vultures complemented our own in calling for robust environmental controls to ensure renewable energy development doesn’t come at too high a social and environmental cost. The visit resulted in a whirlwind of publicity on behalf of Prespa, significantly raising awareness of how it is increasingly facing multiple threats and adding to the argument that we always fight harder on behalf of something we have come to know and love – just one of many reasons why speaking up and making our voices heard can count for so much!

Want to know more?

PONT’s stable long-term funding enables a significant part of the SPP’s work, supporting and complementing their five-year strategic framework. You can learn more about this work and the wider SPP programme on their website or by following them.

By: “SPP”