The Biebrza Valley is one of the largest wetland ecosystems in Central Europe to host species of convervation relevance, and features a strongly biocultural character. The semi-natural habitats that dominate its landscape have been developed as a result of centuries-long regimes of traditional grazing and haymaking. Starting in the 1960s, the gradual abandonment of traditional agriculture has threatened high nature value wetlands through secondary succession. Biebrza National Park (Biebrzański Park Narodowy) could not effectively counteract this process, and conservationists hoped that the system of subsidised agri-environmental schemes (AESs) would resume extensive management. Our goal was to find out whether the AES system is functioning as intended, supporting traditional extensive practices in the Biebrza Valley, whose role in proper wetland conservation has been acknowledged. To identify the impact of AESs on wetland management, we traced the implementation of a larger sample of AESs in the Biebrza Valley over the years using data from the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARiMR). We interviewed 28 local farmers and analysed whether the key traditional practices were integrated in the current management of 158 wetland plots, and what the variance of integration was among plots with different types of implemented AESs or no AES deployed. We found that AESs were implemented in the majority of the plots analysed, proving to be an important conservation and regulatory tool defining the management of semi-natural wetlands in the area. However, the AES system poorly integrated traditional practices, contributed to the abandonment of extensive grazing, and seemed to accelerate agricultural intensification in the area. The AES system fails to maintain a unique biocultural landscape, and the practices it supports may threaten the wetland ecosystem and its biodiversity in the long term. The system requires urgent revision and adaptation to local socio-ecological farming conditions.

中文翻译：

---

农业环境计划是否发挥了作用？来自波兰 Biebrza 国家公园的证据


Biebrza 山谷是中欧最大的湿地生态系统之一，拥有与会汇相关的物种，并具有很强的生物文化特征。主导其景观的半自然栖息地是几个世纪以来传统放牧和干草制度发展起来的结果。从 1960 年代开始，传统农业逐渐被抛弃，通过次级演替威胁到高自然价值的湿地。别布扎国家公园 （Biebrzański Park Narodowy） 无法有效抵消这一过程，环保人士希望补贴农业环境计划 （AES） 系统能够恢复粗放管理。我们的目标是找出 AES 系统是否按预期运行，支持 Biebrza 山谷的传统粗放做法，该做法在适当的湿地保护中的作用已得到认可。为了确定 AES 对湿地管理的影响，我们使用农业重组和现代化机构 （ARiMR） 的数据追踪了多年来在比布扎河谷实施的更大样本的 AES。我们采访了 28 名当地农民，分析了关键的传统做法是否被整合到 158 个湿地地块的当前管理中，以及在实施了不同类型的 AES 或未部署 AES 的地块之间整合的差异是什么。我们发现，在分析的大多数地块中都实施了 AESs，被证明是定义该地区半自然湿地管理的重要保护和监管工具。然而，AES 系统没有很好地整合传统做法，导致放弃了粗放牧，并且似乎加速了该地区的农业集约化。 AES 系统未能维持独特的生物文化景观，它支持的做法可能会长期威胁湿地生态系统及其生物多样性。该系统需要紧急修订和适应当地的社会生态农业条件。