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| General info |
The lake Kerkini constitutes one of the most significant wetlands in Greece. Within this extremely important ecosystem a world rich in vital organisms lives, develops and reproduces in number and diversity. The protection and conservation of this biocoenosis is of vital importance for moral, aesthetic, scientific and economic reasons.
Kerkini lake lies 45 km west of the city of Serres, next to the village Lithotopos. The Lake of Kerkini took its name from Cercinitis Lake, mentioned to the works of Arrian, where the fleet of Alexander the Great had navigated.
The present day’s man-made lake of Kerkini was created on the site of the "Boutkovo" marsh, which has been identified as the site of the ancient lake Prasias by most geographical historians.
The task of constructing the lake was begun by the Monks-Ulen company who worked on the project from 1928 to 1936. The construction was completed by the Greek State. The project included the creation of embankments, the construction of a dam, the drainage of the lake Tachinos, the creation of irrigation channels, the construction of a network of canals and the arrangement a crop sprinkler system. All the above were constructed in order to increase and at the same time protect agricultural production, which was the main economic policy of the Serres Prefecture and depended entirely on the irrigation capacity of Kerkini lake.
The nearby forest shelters 276 recorded species of bird, which account for 68% of the existing species in Greece. Of these existing species, 70 are rare or endangered. For example the silver pelican, the pink pelican, the pygmy cormorant, the night heron, the spoonbill, the jay, the black stork and all varieties of heron are defined by the European Union as protected species.
There are more than thirty species of fish in the lake’s waters, such as the carp, the eel, the butterfly fish and the cat-fish. Moreover, a significant number of species of amphibian, reptiles and invertebrates, live on the outer edge of the lake. On the far side of the neighboring forest live a large number of mammals such as the jackal, the wolf, the wild cat, the hare, the fox, the ferret, the deer and the badger.
Today factors such as the abundance of food in the lake’s water, the reserve’s diversity of vegetation and its geographical position, all combine to make it one of the most suitable environments providing ideal living and nesting conditions for bird life to flourish in. At the same time, the lake itself fulfills extremely important ecological and economic needs of the eco-system and the wider community. |
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