The Importance of Small Water Bodies’ Conservation for Maintaining Local Amphibian Diversity in the Western Balkans

Abstract

In these times of aggressive and enormous anthropogenic alterations of freshwater aquatic habitats throughout the Western Balkans, including drying out, pollution or the introduction of invasive species, the value of small water bodies (SWB) as refugia for local amphibians is clearly increasing. A network of SWB could be crucial for the conservation of local amphibian richness, if this network is properly maintained and monitored. Together, countries of the Western Balkan harbor 29 amphibian species and only one of these species does not use SWB. Almost all those countries share the same challenges—drainage, technical flood protection measures, channelization, planned small dam construction, agriculture, deforestation, pollution, road construction and decrease of aquifers. The conservation of SWB in the region is related to the socio-economic status of the people i.e. to the stimulation of local stakeholders to continue with the traditional practices of agriculture and animal husbandry, including maintenance of SWB, and to their continuous education on importance of SWB for preservation of high values of local biodiversity.