Background Salt-affected soils started to form in the Hortobágy area in the Pleistocene era as mineral-rich sediments were deposited by two rivers. Later the area was cut off by the river Tisza and prolonged dry periods became normal. Since that time, large ungulates have been continuously present in the area, and thus a grass-dominated landscape with Pannonic salt steppes and marshes developed. Some pans were transformed to fishponds during World War I and the system of remaining steppe lakes was disrupted by human activities. The project area attracts many thousands of migrating and nesting birds. The rehabilitation of the natural water cycle carried out by previous LIFE projects is expected to signal the return of the original typical flora and the related fauna. Large-scale grazing will further benefit restoration work. Objectives The primary objective of the 'Steppe lake grazing' project is to eliminate unfavourable and detrimental processes affecting the habitats in a 3 616 ha area, namely: draining of natural rainfall; diversion and blocking the direction of the flow of natural water bodies; dramatic decline in the size of the steppe pans, the mismanagement creating physical barriers that divide and decrease the size of continuous open habitats and related predation pressure; loss of biodiversity; decline in numbers of grazing domesticated animals and the lack of grazing with a conservation purpose. The objective is to achieve an improved conservation status of the project site by re-introduction of the traditional grazing system with the required stocking densities. Awareness-raising campaigns will also play a vital role in the project. The ultimate goal is to set up a workable model for the restoration of steppe lakes in the Carpathian Basin. The project directly targets the priority habitat 'Pannonic salt steppes and salt marshes', listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive. It also indirectly targets several priority Annex II-listed species (e.g. Lutra lutra, Bombina bombina) and a number of birds listed in Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, namely migrating birds (e.g. Botaurus stellaris, Egretta garzetta, E. alba, Platalea leucorodia, Anser erythropus, Aythya nyroca, Grus grus, Himantopus himantopus). Expected results: Open water surfaces are expected to increase by at least 10 times and consequently the population of the bird species should grow by around 20%.