ACTION A.1: Hydrologic survey of the habitat areas
Eco-hydrologic studies will be conducted under this action, to identify altered hydroperiods (length of flooded period) in all four (4) sites of the proposed project. HCMR with the contribution of external consultants (Technical University of Crete) will use existing hydrologic data as well as data from this project's hydrologic monitoring process (action D1) to estimate the habitats' hydrologic regime. Further, the annual and monthly water budget of each site will be estimated by using the aforementioned data and special efforts will be made in discriminating natural and artificial water inflows and outflows. The human induced water exploitation/recharge regime will be accurately quantified and will be counterbalanced by introducing appropriate adjustments on each site's water inflow/outflow regime, in order to restore the natural hydrologic conditions. These adjustments may incorporate water regulatory constructions such as water ditches, soil trenches, ponds' deepening, low scale recharge dams etc. The aim of this activity is not to suggest measures that will extend the pond's hydroperiod but to acquire the necessary information and propose the best applicable method to re-adjust their flooding period at the original levels existing prior to human interventions.

Progress up to now

ACTION A.2: Habitat management plan
A study to investigate the composition and densities of the temporary ponds characteristic species will be conducted under this action at all four (4) sites of the project. The habitat's management plan will be developed by the collaboration of HCMR and Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania aiming to re-establish and preserve the typical M.T.P. species populations in the project sites at a favourable conservation status without affecting adversely other surrounding habitats. These habitat management activities will be site-specific according to each site characteristics and problems and will be provided in a comprehensive form in order to be easily applicable and amendable. The European settled restoration criteria (chapter 2, Life-Nature 2004 application file) will be followed during the preparation of the habitat's management plan in order to avoid potential adverse effects on the broader environment.

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ACTION A.3: Water quality survey
A water quality survey including acquiring all the available past relevant data as well as new measurements of pollutants known to cause eutrophication (water quality monitoring, action D3), will be conducted by HCMR. Comparing the past and contemporary water quality data with focus on eutrophication levels, the potential increasing pollution stresses will be identified in a site-specific basis. The appropriate protection and restoration activities, together with their detailed specifications, will be proposed, where necessary, at the water quality reports, produced under this action. The proposed activities may include establishment of buffer zones and clean up measures, according to each site characteristics and will be implemented at another stage of the project (action C2). Special attention will be paid by the experienced scientific team of HCMR and TUC to avoid proposing measures with significant environmental impacts and the selected protection and restoration activities will be applied only if potential adverse effects on the broader environment are eliminated (precautionary approach).

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ACTION A.4: Habitat mapping
A survey to identify and map the habitat boundaries accurately at all four (4) proposed sites will be undertaken by Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH) at the beginning of the project. The scientific team of this institute are highly experienced in wetlands' ecology and mapping and will visit the selected sites at all seasons to define the exact habitat boundaries and its broader catchment area. The identified M.T.P. vegetation zones, their hydrologically associated areas as well as the artificial constructions within the habitat areas will be imported in a widely used GIS package to produce the habitat maps which will then be used in various protection/restoration activities of the project (fencing, solid waste removal, etc.). Further, potential fragmentation effects in the MTPs will be assessed during this action since recent studies state that man-made constructions such as roads and greenhouse buildings have disrupted the ecological succession of the ponds habitat (Ministry of Environment, 2001).

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ACTION A.5: Socio-economic study
A socio-economic study will be conducted by National Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) with the collaboration of external consultants (National Centre for Social Research, NCSR), to maximize the socio-economic benefits from the project actions. Several conservation activities that will be undertaken during the evolution of the project will directly and indirectly involve various interest groups such as stockbreeders, hotel owners, farmers and recreational groups (off-road vehicle group, football unions, horseback-riding groups, etc). This study will illustrate the best applicable option for the exploitation of the project's results in a socio-economic context, which will also offer a communication bridge with the related interest groups. The suggestions from this study will be used in the special seminar series to the interest groups in order to motivate them towards the project's aims.

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ACTION A.6: Investigation of grazing and watering capacity
Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH) will undertake a study to investigate the grazing and watering capacity of all the project habitat sites. MAICH is a highly experienced research institute in agro-pastoral investigations and studies, already posses significant amount of relevant data for the habitat sites since it is located in Chania area and has develop an important communication bridge with locals farmers that can enhance tackling the overgrazing problem. This action has been designed to support Livestock watering and habitat management plan implementation actions (C6 and D5) since it will provide the necessary information for the appropriate construction of the watering infrastructure (amount of water needed, type and specifications of infrastructure, etc) as well as the livestock carrying capacity of each habitat site. For this effort biotic sampling will be implemented, biomass estimation for each trophic level and site will be conducted accompanied by these parameters' seasonal fluctuations.

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ACTION C.1: Restoration of the habitat's natural hydroperiod
The suggested measures provided by the action A1 reports will be implemented by HCMR with the collaboration of Forest Agency of Chania (external consultant) at all the four (4) habitat sites of the project. Site-specific activities such as construction of low-scale ditches or soil transects to facilitate water movement towards the ponds' area (increase recharge), as well as slight deepening of specific ponds may be some indicative options in order to re-adjust habitats' water inflow and restore their hydroperiods. Other constructions eliminating artificial water recharge (e.g. low scale weirs in streams or underground) will be developed in cases where extensive flooding periods have observed due to human activities. The specifications of water-related constructions will be illustrated at the A1 action reports for each site according to their characteristics and there will be provisions to minimize any potential environmental impacts.

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ACTION C.2: Elimination of the water pollution levels
The report of the water quality survey (action A3) will provide measures to restore and preserve water quality in a favourable state for the M.T.P. habitat at the GR4340001, GR4340002 and GR4340010 project sites. In areas with significantly increased levels of eutrophication, HCMR will apply clean up measures while in other areas with lower but still considerable eutrophication levels precautionary actions will be implemented including establishment of buffer zones in order to prevent potential pollution increase in the future. Furthermore, the water pollution sources will be recorded in action A3 and measures to decrease the incoming pollution directly will be applied. These measures will include motivating polluters to eliminate their effluents and redirect the incoming pollution to areas that will have fewer impacts on the environment (waste water treatment unit network or specially designed deposition lagoons). Additionally, Environmental Impact Assessment approaches will be adopted prior to the establishment of any proposed measure, to avoid altering the dominant communities composition or introducing other disturbances on the broader environment.

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ACTION C.3: Habitat's fencing
Habitat's fencing will contribute in eliminating the serious problems of solid waste disposal, overgrazing, visitors pressure (4x4 vehicles, horse back-riding and football fields) and urban development recorded recently in most of the M.T.P. sites of Crete island (Ministry of Environment, 2001). The scientific team of HCMR will decide the type of fencing to be used (probably a vegetation fence comprised by scrubs, bushes, trees, etc.) and will develop it along the habitat boundaries according to the action's A4 maps in all four project sites. In area's where private properties exist within the habitat, a distinctive vegetation fencing approach will be implemented at the broader area to avoid conflicts with the local people. The established fence will incorporate only environmentally-friendly materials, will allow the communication between the ponds biotic and abiotic components and the broader environmental system. Further, special attention will be paid to avoid introducing competitive species.

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ACTION C.4: Solid waste removal
This action will contribute to the removal of solid waste that has been uncontrollably disposed at the habitat areas. This action will focus on all the project sites because they already present significant degradation due to solid waste disposal. The project partners will implement the waste removal process to the habitat sites, with the contribution of the respective habitat maps produced in action A4. A rural construction company will assist this action by providing labour and infrastructure to efficiently apply the proposed solid removal process. Light equipment will be used during the cleaning stage to avoid causing potential damages to the habitat. In areas' with low amount of solid waste, manual collection with the contribution of public participation (volunteers and schools) will be attempted to increase public awareness. The collected solid wastes will be transferred in official disposal sites and informative, as well as prohibitive signs will be placed on the habitat areas under action C5, to avoid future recurrence of this problematic practice.

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ACTION C.5: Sign posting
Sign posting is a very important action for the achievement of various project aims and therefore it will be applied at all four (4) sites under protection. Informative signs will be installed to notify public about the habitat's importance, its vulnerability and major threats as well as the precautionary activities that visitors should adopt. Further, additional signs will be placed in the habitat areas to prohibit waste disposal and to urge for public participation to the specific preservation efforts. Special attention will be paid to avoid altering the natural landscape significantly by maintaining the number of signs to a minimum at each site, use relatively small sized but distinct signs and by using environmentally-friendly materials (e.g. wood).

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ACTION C.6: Livestock watering
A livestock watering network will be established within the existing grazing meadows close to the habitat areas to avoid overexploitation of ponds' water due to stockbreeding. MAICH will construct environmentally-friendly watering infrastructure in all the project sites according to the suggestions of the livestock grazing and watering capacity study (A6). This infrastructure will comprise low-scale, distinctive constructions (possibly soil ditches with wooden bedding to maintain water) which will be regularly filled with water from a supply system that will receive rainwater, surface water from a nearby stream or canal and if necessary from a borehole.

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ACTION D.1: Monitoring stations
A series of different monitoring sensors and stations will be acquired for all the four sites under conservation, including water level gauges, meteorological stations and water quality sensors. A market survey will be conducted by the expert scientists of HCMR to acquire information and select the most appropriate equipment for each site according to their particular characteristics and dominant environmental conditions. Manual on-site data acquirement option will be chosen for all stations to secure the monitoring process. HCMR will then purchase the selected equipment, install it at the project sites and initiate the monitoring process which will provide significant information for the project evolution. Special attention will be paid on the technical specifications of the monitoring equipment to fulfil the project's requirement and the selected brands to be reliable and widely tested in similar applications. The recorded values will provide the basis for designing habitat management practices (action A2), will support the hydrologic surveys and the recovering of habitats' hydroperiod (actions A1 and C1) and will enhance the water quality surveys as well as the improvement of the habitats' water quality (actions A3 and C2).

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ACTION D.2: Hydrologic monitoring
A hydrologic monitoring network will be established in all the habitat sites to provide the necessary data for the hydrologic survey action (A1) which will direct to the restoration of the ponds hydroperiod (action C1). Additionally, the hyrdologic monitoring network will offer the possibility to observe and assess the results of the measures taken under the re-establishment of the habitats' original hydroperiod action (C1) and undertake amendment activities if necessary. This network will comprise water level measurement equipment and meteorological sensors (rainfall, evaporation, solar radiation, humidity, temperature and barometric pressure, wind direction and velocity) and the monitoring process will begin 3 months after the initiation of the project. The data-recording interval will be hourly and the measurements will be transferred to Technical University of Crete (external consultant) and HCMR's offices.

Progress up to now

ACTION D.3: Water quality monitoring
The water quality data will be recorded on an monthly basis and it will take place in the MAICh Laboratories. The parameters which are going to be monitored are all the necessary to evaluate the eutrofication in the ponds. The water quality monitoring process will initiate and will provide data to assist the water quality survey (action A3) as well as the elimination of water pollution level (action C2) at GR4340001, GR4340002 and GR4340010 project sites. The data will be inserted on relevant databases and will be used, after statistical elaboration, in the development of the water quality survey as well as in validating the project success regarding the habitat water quality threat. MAICH will be responsible for the appropriate operation of this monitoring and will regularly examine the results validity by conducting on "non regular" site test measurements.

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ACTION D.4: Ecological monitoring
Ecological monitoring will be implemented by conducting biological sampling and measurements at all project sites, concerning the habitat's biota. Particularly, M.T.P.'s flora, invertebrates, amphibians and birds distributions and populations will be examined seasonally by the scientific team of HCMR and Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH). This will provide detailed information about the temporal fluctuations of the habitat's biotic components during the project period. Four sampling efforts will be carried out annually, to cover all the seasonal alterations of the habitat and potential degradation of the typical habitat community will be identified. The experienced biologists of MAICh, will be responsible for writing brief reports after each survey which will indicate the ecological condition of the habitat and these will be used to apply/modify the appropriate management activities (action A2). Further, ecological monitoring will allow fast and accurate change detection of the habitat's communities providing the ability to undertake additional management/restoration activities while the results of the project's actions will be assessed, efficiently.

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ACTION D.5: Habitat Communities management scheme application
The results from the habitats management plan formation (action A2) will offer a site-specific management scheme to ensure restoration and preservation of the habitat's typical communities at all the project sites. Ecological monitoring (action D4) will allow to quantify the management results and to introduce potential amendments if necessary. The responsible scientific team for the implementation of the proposed management plan will apply the suggested management activities at each site which may include non-native species removal, re-introduction of key species and population control measures. Provisions will be made to avoid management practices with adverse effects (continuous ecological monitoring, action D4) and the preservation of the habitats' original communities will be the final aim of this action. After the completion of the project the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania will undertake the task to apply the management scheme according to the habitat needs which will be indicated from the continuing ecological monitoring (action D4).

Progress up to now

ACTION E.1: Environmental education
Environmental education sessions will be held at the schools of the entire project area, focusing on the values of Mediterranean Temporary Ponds, the reasons for which they should be protected, the necessary preservation activities and the role that public could have on this effort. The project team will contact school managers, schedule and provide these environmental education sessions with the contribution of the paper and project advertisements produced in actions 3 and 7 respectively. Additionally, the active role of schools in the project's preservation efforts will be rewarded through environmental contests offering prizes to the best conservation activity, annually. The environmental education sessions will be held at as many schools as possible and in the remaining schools an environmental teaching kit will be send by the project team including information notes for the teachers, slides and detailed handouts for the pupils with the aforementioned content. This kit will be developed by the HCMR in collaboration with project team and will be distributed in schools with the contribution of local Environmental Education Department (Ministry of Education).
For the adult people and the local stakeholders guided tours on the M.T.P. areas will be organised where the project team will promote the significance of the habitat, the best practices that local people should follow to achieve its long term preservation and the benefits that people can have from the success of the project (increased eco-tourism, agro-pastoral infrastructure, etc.). After the tour, people will be invited to fill in a questionnaire regarding their opinion on the project actions, their potential suggestion for improvement and their willingness to support and participate certain activities.

Progress up to now

ACTION E.2: Project website
Two months after the initiation of the project its website will be developed and publicized on the Internet, providing a dynamic and continuously operating information and communication platform. The description of the project, its objectives, the actions to be undertaken and background information about the M.T.P. habitat will be included at the site. Further, the actions' progress and the project's reports will be also available at the website providing a source for verification of the project successful evolution. EVDILOS will be responsible to design develop and maintain the website at its facilities, since it has significant experience and the necessary infrastructure to fulfil this task successfully.

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ACTION E.3: Paper advertisement
A series of paper advertisement (brochures, stickers, posters) will be produced by the EVDILOS and will be distributed to schools, public offices, workshops and meetings organized under the project, interest groups and local authorities. In particular they will be produced:
? 20,000 brochures introducing the habitat of Mediterranean Temporary Ponds and its values,
? 3,000 posters urging for public participation to the M.T.P. preservation efforts and
? 2,000 stickers that will emphasize on the significance of the habitat and the reasons for its preservation.
All the produced advertisements will promote the Life programme by carrying the Life logo on them, and there will be visible indication that the sites are proposed for the Natura 2000 Network.

Progress up to now

ACTION E.4: Information kiosks
One information kiosk at each project's site will be constructed. The specifications and the materials used for these kiosks will be environmentally-friendly (wooden constructions) and all the provision will be taken to avoid any potential disturbance to the local environment (aesthetic nuisance or any direct effect). The information kiosks will be low scale developments at points where the visitors can observe the broader habitat area but cannot negatively affect it. Informative signs and maps will exist within the kiosks to illustrate the significant ecological aspects of the site and promote the values of the M.T.P. habitat. The maintenance of the kiosks after the end of the project will be assigned to the local Forest Agencies.

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ACTION E.5: Workshops and seminars
Four open to public events (seminars/workshops) will be organized by MAICH, in appropriate halls and local authorities as well as European Commission representatives will be official guests. These events will be held at the beginning and at the end of the project as well as at critical points during its evolution. The project actions, objectives and results will be disseminated through these events while the socio-economic aspects of the project will be illustrated together with the associated benefits for the public.
Additionally special seminars will be provided to the areas' interest groups such as farmer associations, stockbreeders, hotel owners, NGO's and local managers separately, by experienced scientists of the project team.

Progress up to now

ACTION E.6: Publications (Scientific and non-technical)
The scientific team of the project (HCMR and EVDILOS) will elaborate the project information and results in order to produce scientific papers and reports that will be presented in both international and national conferences and journals. The subject of restoring, preserving and applying efficient management in Mediterranean Temporary Ponds habitat has not widely been studied yet and consequently the scientific results of the project will be important to researchers, scientists and environmental managers. Additionally, a habitat management handbook, in Greek, will be produced with the experiences acquired during the evolution of the project which will incorporate management guidelines for M.T.P. habitats and will be able to use in the rest of the Greek M.T.P. habitat sites.
A non-technical report (layman report) will be also produced at the end of project summarizing its results and its quantified achievements. This report will also state in simple terms the most significant preservation activities that should be continued as well as the habitat-unfriendly activities that should be avoided and will be distributed to local authorities, interest groups, environmental managers and the European Commission.

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ACTION E.7: Project advertisement
Under this action several multimedia and press advertisements will be produced. Particularly, newspaper articles will be composed by the project team and will be sent to the local and national press at the beginning of the project to promote its objectives to the community. More newspaper articles will be produced during the evolution of the project to inform public about the activities progress and the achieved targets. Further, in the same context, television interviews will be recorded and will be broadcasted through the local and national television channels. A computer multimedia presentation of the M.T.P. habitat as well as of the particular project aims and activities will be produced by the responsible for this action participant which will be used in the environmental education sessions (action E.1).

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ACTION E.8: Exhibition Centre
A special exhibition centre concerning all the M.T.P. project sites will be developed in the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania. MAICH project team will design and construct the habitat exhibits that may contain hard-binding posters and interactive presentations stating the habitat's characteristics, ecological values and main functions as well as reasons for its preservation and necessary protection activities that public should undertake. Further, emphasis on the particular Life project will be given in the exhibition to promote the project actions and gain public participation and acceptance. It should be stated that Crete Island is a significant tourist resort and that after the appropriate advertisement campaign that MAICH will undertake, the exhibition is expected to have substantial positive effects to the public awareness and participation regarding the preservation efforts.

Progress up to now