Most of the project activities were aiming to reduce the threats and have had direct impact on the creation of the favorable conservation status of species and their habitats. As a result, the project enhanced the bird populations and the number of species present including breeders. The natural character of the ecosystem was re-established and further pollution and eutrophication prevented.
The most important were the following non-recurring management actions:
- improving of fresh and sea-water inflow to the lagoon with cleaning of the water inflow channels and mounting of the sluices at the sea channel;
- extraction of approx. 185,000 cubic meters mud from the lagoon;
- improving the habitats along the lagoon borders, mainly mudflats and nesting islets, important for enhancing the halophyte habitats and as nesting sites for endangered birds using another 40,000 cubic metres of dredged sediment;
- creation of the freshwater marsh in the area known as Bertoška bonifika as the supplement habitat for the marshes, which were completely destroyed back in 1980s;
- activities for preventing the human disturbance of wildlife with establishment of the warden service and construction of the visitor trail with screening embankments in Bertoška bonifika.
In the restoration preparation phase, the ministry also ordered the production of the technical blue-prints. DOPPS prepared the first Reserve Management Plan for the period 2007-11 and has set up an informal network of managers of the North Adriatic wetlands to ensure exchange of experience among the network partners in two workshops with international participation. Along the research of fish and reserve repopulation capacity in 2001-02 the regular monitoring was an important project activity to monitor the success of the project. Regularly, the monitoring of birds, water quality and hydrological parameters was carried out while mapping of the newly created habitat types was implemented at the end of the project.
Because of the exceptional importance of the project for the nature conservation in Slovenia as such, great emphasis was placed on the project activities aiming to increase the conservation awareness. Among those were very important regular contacts and presentations to the local people at lectures and guided tours, to the school children on the field classes, and also preparing and updating of this web site and publication oof bulletins. All stages of the largest restoration of a protected area in Slovenia have been filmed and at the project end, an educational documentary film was prepared and a publication released.
