Key Biodiversity Areas

Venø and Venø Sund (2959)
Denmark, Europe

Site overview


KBA status: confirmed
Year of last assessment: 2000
National site name: Venø og Venø Sund
Central coordinates: Latitude: 56.5833, Longitude: 8.6667
System: marine, terrestrial
Elevation (m): 0 to 5
Area of KBA (km2): 29.39493
Protected area coverage (%): 99.54
KBA classification: Global/Regional TBD
Legacy site: Yes

Site details


Site description: A shallow brackish fjord with a small area of saline lagoons, beaches and saltmarsh.
Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance because it meets one or more previously established criteria and thresholds for identifying sites of biodiversity importance (including Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, and Key Biodiversity Areas)
Additional biodiversity: Numbers of passage and winter visitors have declined dramatically due to deteriorating water quality: in 1983 several species were present in internationally important numbers including Bucephala clangula (meeting IBA criterion A4) and Mergus serrator and Mergus merganser (meeting IBA criterion B1). Recurvirostra avosetta, Sterna paradisaea and S. albifrons, listed on Annex I of the EC Birds Directive, currently breed at the site.

Habitats


IUCN HabitatCoverage %Habitat detail
Marine Coastal/Supratidal32
Marine Intertidal32
Forest5
Marine Neritic32

Threats


Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Improvements in water quality will almost certainly restore the site's ornithological importance.