Archive for the ‘Conservation’ Category
Friday, August 15th, 2008
Interesting news from Galicia. An environmental collective, Fegama, are calling for a more positive and effective management of the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) in their region by encouraging man’s coexistence with the species rather than continuing with the age-old battle against it. They suggest that instead of the present, negative method of paying farmers compensation for damages to livestock caused by wolves (often a long, drawn-out affair), that a system of subsidising farmers in areas shared by the wolves would be more beneficial to both. Subsidies would be used to pay for preventative measures such as livestock guardian dogs and fencing to protect flocks from the Galician wolf population of some 70 family packs. They are going to start a campaign of education to dispel the fear caused by myths surrounding the animal and to promote awareness of the important role that wolves play in the region’s biodiversity by keeping down numbers of their natural prey, for example Wild boar and Roe deer, two species that are potentially destructive. As always, prevention is better than cure.
News from La Voz de Galicia
Read about Iberian wolf conservation management on IberiaNature forum
Tags: Fegama, subsidies, wolf predation prevention
Posted in Conservation, Farming, Galicia, Wolves | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
The Fundación Oso Pardo has nearly finished a study to find a communication corridor for the two, at present, separated bear populations. The study has identified problem areas and will propose at least four possible crossing points. It won’t be easy however as the zone to be used, through the Huerna Valley and over the Pajares mountain pass, is criss-crossed by roads and railways, including a dual carriageway and high-speed train linking Asturias with the Spanish central plains, which will have to be bridged. Also in the way are the odd ski resort or two. Deforestation is proving to be another stumbling block in the bears’ passage so they will also be recommending the replanting of trees to provide cover for the animals during their crossing. The study will be handed to the regional governments of Asturias and Castilla and León later this year.
News from elmundo.es
Photo from Mundo de Gea
More on Spain’s bears on the forum
Tags: Fundación Oso Pardo, Huerna, Pajares
Posted in Asturias, Cantabrian mountains, Castilla y León, Conservation | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
As part of the Spanish ornithological society SEO/Birdlife’s campaign, El Sonido del Bosque (Sounds of the Forests), work-camps will begin this August to improve the habitat of the Cantabrian Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantábricus) in the Picos de Europa National Park. Working through to mid-December while the birds are at their most inactive, they hope to help promote the growth of berry-bearing plants and, at the same time, identify the Capercaillie population within the areas where the field-work will be concentrated. The last censuses of the remaining main populations centred in Asturias and León were carried out in 2001 and 1998-2000 respectively and gave a figure of about 400 individuals in total. SEO/Birdlife give a figure of 500, which supposedly takes into account the numbers of Capercaillie in the subspecies’ other habitats of Galicia and Cantabria, a number strongly refuted by the Asturian ornithological society, the Coordinadora Ornitolóxica d’Asturies, who say the total population must now be only about half that number.
Tags: Cantabrian capercaillie, Coordinadora Ornitolóxica d'Asturies, SEO/Birdlife
Posted in Asturias, birds, Cantabrian mountains, Conservation, León, Picos de Europa | No Comments »
Monday, June 16th, 2008
A new draft of the Plan for the Recuperation of the Cantabrian brown bear (Plan para la Recuperación del Oso pardo Cantabrico) has been sent by the Castilla y León Environment Ministry to all the townhalls covering the affected areas within both the National and Regional Parks of the Picos de Europa, the Natural Park of Fuentes Carrionas y Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina as well as in all the areas which have been proven to be of vital importance for the bears such as the valleys Naranco and Lechada. Incorporated in the plan will be the monitoring of any possible communication corridors in order to join the two split bear populations and avoid the fragmentation of habitat. Any recreational activity within the protected area will be prohibited and forestry and agricultural use will be controlled. Hunting will be strictly monitored, being banned completely during critical feeding times (autumn) and in areas where bears are spotted by patrols. These new protection laws will be followed until said controlled areas come up with their own environmental management plans. All of which should effectively ensure the future survival of the Cantabrian brown bear and sound the death knell for the San Glorio ski resort project.
News from El Diario de León.
Read all about the San Glorio bears on the forum.
Watch a video of two young Cantabrian brown bears on elmundo.es.
Tags: laws, new, Plan para la Recuperación del Oso pardo Cantabrico, protection, San Glorio
Posted in Asturias, bears, Cantabrian mountains, Castilla y León, Conservation, Mammals, Picos de Europa | No Comments »
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Photo from Zoobotánico de Jerez
A pair of Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita), of which less than 250 individuals survive in the whole world, have managed to breed in the wild in Spain for what is probably the first time in 500 years. The pair have laid two eggs in the Spanish Ministry of Defence training ground in the Sierra de El Retín, in Barbate (Cádiz). The breeding represents an important landmark for the ‘Proyecto Ibis Eremita’, which with the help of the Zoo Botánico de Jerez and the Estación Biológica de Doñana, is seeking to reintroduce the bird to areas where it has become extinct and to strengthen existing wild populations in North Africa. The last definite reference to the bald ibis breeding in Spain is from a 15th century falcony book. El País
Until recently the Northern Bald Ibis was believed to survive in the wild only in Morocco at Souss-Massa National Park (338 km²) where there are three colonies, and at the nearby Oued Tamri mouth, where there is one colony containing almost half the African breeding population, with some movement of birds between these two sites. In 2002 a relict colony was discovered in Syria, where the species was regarded to have vanished more than 70 years before. More from Wikipedia
Tags: Barbate, Cadiz, Geronticus eremita, Jerez Zoo, Northern Bald Ibis, Sierra de El Retín, Spanish Ministry of Defence
Posted in Andalucia, birds, Conservation | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Following the news of the creation of a third patrol for the Fundación Oso Pardo which will be financed by the Obra Social Caja Madrid to further and coordinate the work of the existing two, today comes news of a new investigation into the conservation management of the Cantabrian brown bear. The project will be headed by the environmental department of the Asturian government and the Doñana Research Centre of the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). Yesterday, no lesser personages than Miguel Delibes de Castro, respected Spanish biologist and mammal expert, and one of the leading European brown bear experts, Jon Swenson, met in Asturias for a working meeting to oversee the start of the investigation which consists of three phases. First is a study of the demographic evolution of the Cantabrian bears in order to diagnose their current conservation status, followed by the identification of possible communication corridors and the analysis of damages to agriculture and livestock. Delibes and Swenson finished their meeting with José Félix García Gaona, head of the Asturian Biodiversity and Countryside Department (Biodiversidad y Paisaje) with a visit to Proaza from where the Asturian Bear Foundation (Fundación Oso Asturias) is sponsoring a doctoral thesis by Andrés Ordiz Fernández, titled “Análisis de patrones de movimiento y actividad del oso pardo en Europa. Aplicación a la conservación de pequeñas poblaciones amenazadas. El caso de la Cordillera Cantábrica.” (Analysis of patterns of movement and activity of the brown bear in Europe. Application of the conservation of small, endangered populations. The case of the Cantabrian mountains.)
Doubtless, they also visited Paca and Tola with their new, hopeful mate Furaco.
News from lne.es
Follow the Cantabrian brown bear on IberiaNature forum
Tags: Asturian Biodiversity and Countryside Department, CSIC, Fundación Oso Pardo, investigation, Jon Swenson, Miguel Delibes, Paca and Tola
Posted in Asturias, bears, Cantabrian mountains, Conservation | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
A male Capercaillie (in Spanish, urogallo), named Manso by villagers in Asturias, has returned to the area where last year he was desparately looking for females of his own species. Having travelled to the mountains around the village of Lillo in León, he’s back equipped with a radio collar. His progress is being monitored and if relocating him to a more suitable area doesn’t work, then he’ll be moved the a new breeding centre not far away in Sobrescobio. Biologists say his behaviour is typical of a species heading towards extinction. From elcomerciodigital.com
Photo from lavanguardia.es
Read more on Capercaillie in Spain on the forum.
Tags: Asturias, Cantabrian capercaillie, extinction, urogallo
Posted in Cantabrian mountains, Conservation, On Spain | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
I’m pleased to announce the first iberianatureforum sponsored wildlife project. The plan is to support the conservation of the endangered Southern Midwife toad (Alytes dickhilleni – above photo from sierradebaza.org.) The idea has arisen from a visit members of the forum made last month to the Zoo Botanico in Jerez de la Frontera, the best in Spain in terms of conservation of local species, and has been organised by joint forum-owner Clive whom I quote here.
- The zoo is in the process or requesting permission to collect from the wild an endangered species of amphibian for captive breeding and release and we (The Forum) can help out with the project.
- Alytes dickhilleni is a species of Midwife toad that only occurs in the Southern part of Spain hence its common name of “Betic / Southern Midwife Toad” after the “Baetic” mountain range in the Andalucía. (In Spanish it’s a Sapo partero bético).
- The project needs some large glass terrariums (5) in order to house and breed the toads that cost (the terrariums) about 150 Euros each. In return for our help the Iberianature Forum will be named as sponsors and our collaboration will be mentioned in all the results returned from the project. (We will be famous at last!)
- The community of iberianature has come a long way over the last year or so and we have all contributed to an excellent resource about the natural world of Iberia but this, for me at least, is an excellent opportunity for us as a group to help in a practical way some people who are really working hard to protect their environment.
If you like iberianature and you would like to contribute to this project please send me or Clive an email.
See on the forum
Tags: Alytes dickhilleni, Iberianature Forum, Jerez de la Frontera Zoo, Jerez Zoo, Southern Midwife Toad
Posted in Conservation, Iberianature news, reptiles & amphibians | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
But great news for the Cantabrian mountains and their wildlife;
The Castilla and León law courts have vetoed the project put forward by Tres Provincias S.A. for a ski resort in the San Glorio region of the Cantabrian mountains in the north of Spain, citing climate change as the main reason for its very doubtful economic viability. This makes it the first plan to have been denied on the grounds of climate change. The judgement points out that when, in 2006, the regional government of Castilla and León modified the laws protecting the Natural Park of Fuentes Carrionas and Fuente Cobre-Montaña Palentina (land included in much of the project) to enable the building of a ski resort, no scientific study was included to take into account the effects of climate change.
The threats to the environment and the future of the Cantabrian brown bear made by the project have led to huge opposition from conservationists, who have provided many environmental impact reports. The court also recognises that this project would be incompatible with the survival of many species of flora and fauna of the area, including the bears whose Eastern population would be severely affected.
News from El País
Read all about the subject on Iberianature forum
Tags: Cantabrian brown bear, Fuentes Carrionas, rejected, San Glorio, ski resort
Posted in bears, Cantabrian mountains, Castilla y León, climate change, Conservation, Iberianature news | No Comments »
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
Using a technique for the first time with this species, the Foundation for the Reintroduction of the Lammergeier hope to release a bird bred completely isolated from human contact. They’ve built a 6x6m platform at 1,500m in Ordesa which includes a heated nest with a “puppet” adult bird to feed the chick and, next to it, a cage which the chick will be moved into after 80 days to continue the natural imprinting process as in this area of the Pyrenees there is the largest population of the species in Europe. A feeding station next to the cage will provide opportunity for the chick (born in Feb.) to observe and learn natural adult behaviour. After 120 days the young bird will fly for the first time.
They say that this tecnique will be used in the “near future” for the release of three birds in the Picos de Europa, from which I guess will be next year, the only difference being that the birds will be relocated from the Pyrenees two weeks before their first flights in the Picos.
The conservation group are already using another technique of strategically placing caged adult birds in areas in which they hope to encourage the Lammergeier to return.
For more info go to the discussion on Iberianature forum
Posted by Lisa
Tags: bearded vulture, breeding techniques, Conservation, lammergeier
Posted in Aragonese Pyrenees, birds, Conservation, lammergeyer, Picos de Europa, Pyrenees, Vultures in Spain | No Comments »
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Interesting artcle by Benigno Varillas, founder of Quercus. ”The rural as we know it is coming to an end. It needs reconversion… Nature conservation stands at a crossroads… As the rural population grows older and EU money dries up, the rural world must change…”(Fapas/LNE). I’ll be writing a full article soon on RUNA, a massive project, which aims to find a convergence between the rural world and nature conservation in Spain, and which I’ve been asked to help with. More soon.
Posted in Conservation, Farming, On Spain, RUNA | No Comments »
Friday, September 14th, 2007
Oceana have warned of the disappearance of millions of Mediterranean corals due to pollution fishing practices and climate change. More than 200 species of corals, Gorfonacea and anemones live in the Mediterranean. Barely 1% are protected by international accords. (El Mundo)
Posted in Conservation, Spanish Mediterranean, Spanish seas | No Comments »
