Lithuania · Žuvintas Biosphere Reserve

Žuvintas is located in southern Lithuania and comprises a mosaic of shallow lakes, extensive reed beds, bogs, wet meadows and forests. At its centre lies the heavily silting-up Žuvintas Lake. Sedimentation and the growth of aquatic and marsh vegetation continuously create new reed beds and floating plant islands there. The landscape, which is difficult to access, provides refuges for numerous migratory and breeding birds. At the same time, its condition is closely linked to the water regime and the use of the surrounding meadows and fields.

Protection of the area dates back to 1937. At the initiative of the Lithuanian zoologist and naturalist Tadas Ivanauskas, a protected area was established at Žuvintas Lake, particularly for the conservation of birdlife. It is regarded as the starting point of state-organised nature conservation in Lithuania. This early reserve later developed into a more comprehensive spatial protection concept that includes not only strictly protected areas but also adjacent landscapes and their use.

The UNESCO programme “Man and the Biosphere” (“Der Mensch und die Biosphäre”) was launched in 1971. Biosphere reserves are not conceived exclusively as natural areas shielded from human influence. They are intended to combine nature conservation, scientific observation and long-term sustainable use. They usually consist of core, buffer and transition zones. While natural processes and sensitive habitats are protected in the core zones, agriculture and forestry, settlements and other forms of use are possible under defined conditions in the other areas.

Žuvintas was included in the worldwide network of UNESCO biosphere reserves in 2011. The issue of the coin in 2021 therefore marked the tenth anniversary of this inclusion. The occasion linked an international UNESCO anniversary with the area’s longer history of Lithuanian nature conservation. The choice of a wetland also brought into focus a landscape type whose preservation depends not only on protecting individual animal species, but also on water levels, traditional grassland management and coordinated use throughout the entire catchment area.