Aquatic warblers are Europe's most threatened migratory passerine, dependent on traditional sedge fen management that is being lost across their already restricted breeding range.
Aquatic warbler welfare depends on the continuation of traditional fen management practices that have already been lost from much of Europe. Abandonment of traditional sedge cutting allows fens to succeed to unsuitable vegetation, eliminating breeding territories. The small global population means each breeding territory and each individual has population-level significance. In migration, aquatic warblers stage on coastal reedbeds and sedge beds in northwest Europe — loss of these staging habitats adds additional welfare pressures during migration. The species entire welfare depends on human management decisions about how to maintain traditional agricultural landscapes.