Upper Kiskunság Alkaline Lakes

Lake Kelemen is one of the largest of the alkaline lakes in the Kiskunság

Upper Kiskunság Alkaline Lakes

  • Country: 
    Hungary
  • Site number: 
    187
  • Area: 
    7,393.8 ha
  • Designation date: 
    11-04-1979
  • Coordinates: 
    46°48'N 19°10'E
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

Located between the Danube and Tisza rivers, the Site includes four shallow open water sodic-alkaline pans, three major sodic-alkaline reedbeds and an associated mosaic of saline marshes, meadows, aquaculture ponds and irrigated land. It is the largest and most important area of saline lakes and flats between the Danube and Tisza rivers in the Great Hungarian Plain. The Site supports notable species of breeding, migrating, wintering and resident birds, including the great bustard (Otis tarda), pied avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta), Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris) and red-breasted goose (Branta ruficollis). It hosts several noteworthy plant species and communities endemic to the Pannonic biogeographic region, including Aster tripolium ssp. pannonicus. The lakes play an important role in the retention and storage of water and the regulation of the groundwater level in the surrounding area. Currently the Site is mainly used as extensive grassland, and for reed harvesting and other agricultural activities. The main threats to the Site’s ecological character are agricultural pollution and the loss of groundwater due to the overexploitation of the aquifers and severe droughts.

Administrative region: 
Bács-Kiskun county

  • Global international designation: 
    • UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
  • National legal designation: 
    • national park - Kiskunsági National Park
  • Regional (international) legal designations: 
    • EU Natura 2000
  • Last publication date: 
    25-11-2015

Downloads

Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS)

Additional reports and documents