Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of the local fauna are the birds.  In a total of 260 species, the population of wild pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) stand out and the pink pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus) –two species which are facing extinction.  Prespes is the only place in the European Union where these two species are found and nest together. Moreover, the colony of wild pelicans is the wildest in the world. Remarkable are the populations of many other threatened aquatic birds, such as the herons (fam. Ardeidae), the pygmy cormorants (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus) and ash geese (Anser anser.)

The founding of the Prespes Park, the first cross-border protected area in the Balkans, was announced on 2/2/2000, on the World Day of wetlands, at Agios Germanos, Prespes. This historical agreement was signed by the Prime Ministers of Greece, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

“This trilateral cooperation is a milestone for the protection of the environment”, noted Richard Holland, Director of the International Program of the WWF for the wetlands. “Especially today, when marine resources, the rivers, lakes and streams of the planet face serious problems since they are downgraded and dwindling.”

 The Greek segments of Little and Great Prespes and the slopes of the mountains Triklari and Varnounda which face them, define the extent of the Park. Its core which extends to the whole of Little Prespes and a few lakeside areas, give the park its unique wetland identity, which was characterized by the Ramsar Treaty as an Internationally Protected Wetlands (1973) and was ratified by our country by law 191/1974.

The Company for the Protection of Prespes was honoured with the Ramsar Award for its avant-garde administration of the wetlands and its cooperation on the local, national, and international level for Prespes.

 The Ramsar Treaty  (Iran, 1971) is the first modern worldwide multi-government treaty for the protection and correct administration of natural resources.