Das Projekt "Protection Programme for Endangered Dragonfly Species in the Southwest of Germany" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Freiburg, Institut für Biologie II durchgeführt. The project's goal is to preserve whichever relatively robust populations of the two dragonflies remain, not in the least as reservoirs for the colonisation of new sites, and to revive populations which were once thriving, through targeted management measures. The basic scientific data to this end were partly collected by the beneficiary itself, the NGO 'Schutzgemeinschaft Libellen'. At nine focal subsites the following measures will be carried out: purchase or lease of strips along the edges of ditches and brooks to act as buffer zones against negative impacts from intensive agriculture; clearance of areas covered in shrubbery; initial biotope restoration works for surface water which have become largely overgrown; careful excavation of terrestrialized wetlands and removal of weeds from pools, ditches and brooks. For the long-term success of the project, the subprogramme to integrate careful and sensitive operational procedures in the routine maintenance of ditches and other bodies of water by local authorities, will be crucial. Brochures and workshops for representatives of the authorities concerned, for the workmen who actually carry out the maintenance work and for interest groups are to raise the profile of the two dragonflies and promote the management of surface waters in ways better suited to their biological requirements. Baden-Wuerttemberg is at one of the margins of the distribution range for two dragonfly species (Coenagrion mercuriale and Leucorrhinia pectoralis) endangered enough to be on Annex II of the Habitats Directive. Coenagrion mercuriale nowadays mainly occurs in groundwater-influenced ditches and brooks in farmland, while Leucorrhinia pectoralis is found in the secondary stagnant bodies of water associated with fens and transition mires (peat diggings etc). Both species need, to be able to deposit their eggs, very specific vegetation structures along the waters edge which however are often no longer available because maintenance of ditches and brooks is either too intensive or is not carried out at all. Because the habitats of both species predominantly involve areas which usually do not benefit from legal protection as nature protection areas, the impact from intensive agriculture, which often reaches right to the edge of ditches and brooks, is a serious threat. Consequently, Coenagrion mercuriale and Leucorrhinia pectoralis have become rare in Baden-Wuerttemberg.