This working group focusses on the conservation approach needed for all species of naiads. This includes the identification of the environmental factors responsible for population declines, and the production of guidance for their conservation and habitat restoration.

The approach to improving the conservation outcome for freshwater mussels will be to collate and database information from:

  1. past catchment conservation actions,
  2. captive breeding projects,
  3. knowledge on fish hosts,
  4. the protocols for emergency actions,
  5. historical information on populations and subsequent catchment changes,
  6. guidance on assessment.

These actions considered together will lead to important outputs for mussel conservation, including the following publications:

  • A horizon scan for emerging threats to freshwater mussels
  • A review of conservation actions for freshwater mussels
  • A review of captive breeding of freshwater mussels
  • A guidance review for the assessment of plans, projects and operations, methodologies for survey and monitoring
  • A red list revision for the naiad species in the action
  • A draft CEN standard for naiad species
    • Meeting 1 – Jan. 2021 (pdf)
  • Contribution to the textbook (see WG4)

A particular emphasis of WG3 is on species not listed in Annex II of the Habitat’s Directive, but under serious threat of extinction.

List of the Working Group members

You can find a list of members belonging to Working Group 3 – Conservation (according to COST declarations) below:

NameCountry
Dr Fundime MiriAlbania
Prof Spase ShumkaAlbania
Mr Clemens GumpingerAustria
Mr Daniel DaillAustria
Dr Grégory MotteBelgium
Dr Teodora TrichkovaBulgaria
Dr Lajtner JasnaCroatia
Mr Ivan ŠpelicCroatia
Prof Marina PiriaCroatia
Dr Karel DoudaCzechia
Dr Ondřej CudlínCzechia
Ms Radwa SaadEgypt
Dr Fabio ErcoliEstonia
Mr Henn TimmEstonia
Mr Panu OulasvirtaFinland
Prof Jouni TaskinenFinland
Dr Vincent PrieFrance
Dr Karl-Otto NagelGermany
Dr Katharina Stöckl-BauerGermany
Prof Juergen GeistGermany
Dr IOANNIS KARAOUZASGreece
Dr Evelyn MoorkensIreland
Mr Ian KilleenIreland
Prof Ilia OstrovskyIsrael
Dr Camilla Della TorreItaly
Dr Nicoletta RiccardiItaly
Dr Vanessa ModestoItaly
Dr Halil IbrahimiKosovo
Prof Arturs SkuteLatvia
Dr Gražina StanevičiūtėLithuania
Dr Romualda PetkevičiūtėLithuania
Dr Virmantas StunžėnasLithuania
Dr Vytautas RakauskasLithuania
Dr Frankie ThielenLuxembourg
Dr Munjiu OxanaMoldova
Ms Milica JovanovićMontenegro
Prof Vladimir PesicMontenegro
Mr Frank CollasNetherlands
Dr Valentina Slavevska StamenkovicNorth Macedonia
Ms Jelena HinicNorth Macedonia
Prof Dijana Blazhekovikj – DimovskaNorth Macedonia
Dr Jon Hamner MagerøyNorway
Dr Marie-Pierre GosselinNorway
Dr Adam ĆmielPoland
Dr Agnieszka WośPoland
Dr Anna CichyPoland
Dr Anna LipińskaPoland
Dr Anna ŁabęckaPoland
Dr Cecylia WardakPoland
Dr Dariusz HalabowskiPoland
Dr Iga LewinPoland
Dr Katarzyna ZajacPoland
Dr Maciej WyrębekPoland
Dr Malgorzata OzgoPoland
Dr Marcin CzarnoleskiPoland
Dr Monika MioduchowskaPoland
Mr Jacek DołęgaPoland
Ms Anna StanickaPoland
Ms Maria UrbańskaPoland
Prof Tadeusz Zając (chair of MC)Poland
Dr Amílcar TeixeiraPortugal
Dr Duarte GonçalvesPortugal
Dr Joaquim ReisPortugal
Dr Manuel Lopes LimaPortugal
Dr Martina IlarriPortugal
Ms Joana NogueiraPortugal
Prof Ronaldo SousaPortugal
Prof Simone VarandasPortugal
Dr Ana Maria Benedek-SîrbuRomania
Dr Ioan SîrbuRomania
Dr Maja RakovićSerbia
Mr Slobodan ZlatkovicSerbia
Mr Stefan AnđusSerbia
Mr Ján ČerneckýSlovakia
Dr Miguel ClaveroSpain
Dr Paz ONDINASpain
Dr Rafaela AmaroSpain
Mr Pedro A. CastrilloSpain
Ms Keiko Nakamura AntonacciSpain
Dr Martin ÖsterlingSweden
Mr Niklas WengströmSweden
Dr Emel ZERAY ÖZTÜRKTurkey
Dr FUSUN AKGULTurkey
Dr Şebnem AtasaralTurkey
Dr Ümit KEBAPÇITurkey
Ms Isobel OllardUnited Kingdom
Prof David AldridgeUnited Kingdom
Prof Philip BoonUnited Kingdom
Dr Jan Pawlowski