Servech

The absence of mowing leads to accumulation of the thick layer of the dry vegetation which prevents the growing of new grass.

Servech

  • Country: 
    Belarus
  • Site number: 
    2250
  • Area: 
    9,068 ha
  • Designation date: 
    29-05-2014
  • Coordinates: 
    54°58'N 27°29'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 in the floodplain of the Servech river, Servech Ramsar Site is a complex of fen mires, transitional marshes and raised bogs. This mosaic of habitats supports the existence of rare and vulnerable species listed in the Red List of the Republic of Belarus. The globally threatened aquatic warbler Acrocephalus paludicola and great snipe Gallinago media use the fen mires every year for breeding. The Site holds great hydrological value as it stabilizes the hydrological regime of Lake Servech, the Servech river and its tributaries. As a tributary of the Vilia river, the Servech also plays a significant role in the water balance of Vileiskoe Water Reservoir and Vileisko-Minskaya Water System. Lake Servech hosts amateur and commercial fishing. Threats to the Site include the unstable use of floodplain meadows and fen mires: the stopping of mowing and grazing has left the open fens overgrown with reeds, shrubs and trees, and so reduced the habitat of the aquatic warbler and great snipe. Other threats include the pollution of surface water and groundwater from agricultural effluents and the spring burning of the vegetation in the floodplain meadows and fen mires. Although it is currently prohibited, the possibility of peat extraction within the Site is of a certain concern.

Administrative region: 
Glubokoe and Dokshitsy administrative districts of Vitebsk region

  • National legal designation: 
    • Hydrological Reserve of Republican Importance - Servech
  • Last publication date: 
    15-01-2016

Downloads

Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS)