Vileity

Vileity site's flora elements
Beaver's dam closint the drainage canals  in Vileity site
Flooded meadows in Vileity site

Vileity

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Overview

Vileity Ramsar Site is a waterlogged forest with a complex of fen and transitional mires, floodplain meadows and marshes, rivers, oxbow lakes and a system of channels overgrown with woods. It makes up the eastern part of a large natural wetland complex located in the transboundary zone between Belarus and Lithuania and is adjacent to the Lithuanian “Adutiskis-Svyla-Birveta wetland complex” Ramsar Site. The floodplains provide an important stopover and migration corridor for threatened waterbirds including the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), the ruff (Philomachus pugnax) and the common greenshank (Tringa nebularia). During the spring floods, the Site hosts more than 20,000 waterfowl. More than 1% of the biogeographic population of the greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) and the bean goose (Anser fabalis rossicus) regularly visit. The Myadelka and Drisvyata rivers which flow through Vileity serve as important migratory channels to allow adult European eels (Anguilla anguilla) to reach their spawning grounds in the Baltic Sea. The Site plays an important role in regulating the hydrological regime of the Western Dvina River basin and in supporting flood control. The main threats are logging and wood harvesting, drainage and unsustainable agricultural practices in parts of the Site.
Transboundary designation: 
Together with Adutiskis-Svyla-Birveta wetland complex in Lithuania (Site no.1992), Vileity is part of the Adutiskis-Vileity Transboundary Ramsar Site established in 2016.

Administrative region: 
Pastavy and Braslavsky districts/Vitebsk region

  • National legal designation: 
    • Wetland Reserve of Local Importance - Vileity
  • Last publication date: 
    15-01-2016

Downloads

Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS)