Upper Kiskunság Alkaline Lakes

Upper Kiskunság Alkaline Lakes

Country:
Hungary
Site number:
187
Area:
7,393.8 ha
Designation date:
11-04-1979
Coordinates:
46°48'36"N 19°10'18"E
  • Lake Kelemen is one of the largest of the alkaline lakes in the Kiskunság
  • Saline lake with "black water"
  • View of Lake Kelemen
  • Aerial view of a saline lake
  • Black-headed Gulls and Pied Avocet at Lake Kelemen
  • Aerial view of Lake Böddi
  • Reedbed in a saline lake
  • "White water" in a saliner lake
  • Halophytic vegetation in a soda pan
  • Dry soda pan

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.


The Site is the largest and most important area of saline lakes and flats between the Danube and Tisza rivers in the Great Hungarian Plain. Its shallow intermittent waters are not lakes in limnological terms but have physical and ecological features similar to coastal pan ecosystems. The wetland 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 supports notable species of breeding, migrating, wintering and resident birds, including the 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 Pannonian 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 for extensive grassland, for reed harvesting and other agricultural activities. The main threats to its ecological character are logging and wood harvesting 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: 20-06-2025
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