Project aims to double population of black vultures nesting in Portugal | nature conservation
It was recently presented, and should last until 2027, a conservation project of the biodiversity which aims to “consolidate and expand” the black vulture population (Aegypius monachus) in Portugal and in western Spain. O LIFE return from Egypt is coordinated by the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), an organization dedicated to the conservation of vulture species in Europe, and wants to increase the number of black vulture colonies in Portugal from four to five, doubling its breeding population.
The League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), one of the project’s various partners, says that this breeding population is currently made up of 40 pairs of vultures, spread over four colonies — at Herdade da Contenda, in Serra da Malcata Nature Reservein the Douro Internacional Natural Park and in the Tejo Internacional Natural Park (PNTI).
It is in the PNTI that the largest black vulture breeding colony in Portugal can be found. In a press release issued three months ago, Quercus reported that, in 2022, they will nest 31 couples on the territory of the park. This number, the environmental association said at the time, not only means that the PNTI is home to more than 70% of the population of black vultures in Portugal, but also accounts for “a trend towards the recovery of species” in the country.
O LIFE return from Egypt pretend to speed up a‘recolonization’ natural resources”, the availability of food and combating a series of threats. Like poisoning, which will be the main one, José Tavares, director of VCF, tells PÚBLICO. “It is not to kill vultures that the poison is put in. It is to kill animals that prey on sheep and cause problems for livestock, such as wolves and foxes”, he comments.
Whether they are targeted by shepherds or not, vultures are affected by the use of poisons, which, says José Tavares, is not only “damaging biodiversity” but also “illegal”. “Wildlife poisoning is an environmental crime”, he emphasizes, stating that, under the LIFE return from Egyptthe National Republican Guard (GNR) will develop “actions to minimize and control this threat”.
Lead in hunting ammunition
Another threat is the risk of poisoning by leadthat “continues to be used in ammunition” — and can therefore be a problem when vultures, which are scavenger birds (that is, they feed on corpses or emitting substances), eat the remains of animals killed by hunters.
“We are going to sensitize hunters so that they use alternative ammunition, which does not cause poisoning”, says the director of the VCF, who in this dossier the support of the National Association of Rural Owners, Hunting Management and Biodiversity (ANPC), another of the partners of the project LIFE return from Egypt.
As explained by LPN, different management actions will also be developed habitat, either “around existing colonies” or around “potential new colonies”. José Tavares reveals that firebreaks will be created “in strategic areas around the colonies”, to prevent the fires from spreading quickly.
“Everything so that, in a situation of forest fire — which, unfortunately, is far from being an infrequent situation in our country — the trees where the nests are found can survive”, he points out.
Working with livestock producers to secure food
Regarding the way in which the project will seek to increase the availability of food, José Tavares explains that the VCF will try to convince cattle ranchers to obtain “licenses” that may already be private and that mean that it is not necessary to “send collection to incineration” the corpses of their animals.
Recently, the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) allows that food is made available for scavenger birds in areas outside the fields that are specifically intended for your food. But only if several health requirements have been met and if “this way of making food available” is “indicated as fundamental for the conservation status of the species in question”.
The VCF wants to help at least 60 livestock producers to prepare the requests that have to be made for the Government to allow them to feed scavenger birds in specific places on their livestock properties, or else “outside the fenced field”, as the DGAV refers.
“Taking into account the need to avoid a drastic reduction in the food availability of scavenger birds, the availability of corpses and animal by-products outside the fenced feeding grounds must be ensured. This approach is intended to ensure a lower degree of artificiality in the bird feeding system, bringing the availability of cases from extensive livestock farms and hunting areas closer to the area of regular occurrence of confines in Portugal”, explains the Government in 2019, not dispatch in which it approved the Action Plan for the Conservation of Necrophagous Birds.
Nationally, the black vulture is critically endangered. “It became locally extinct in the 20th century, but in recent years there has been a ‘recolonization’ natural”, contextualizes the VCF director, whoreflecting on theLIFE return from Egypt, talk about a project “ambitious”.
“We are going to work in a geographical area that covers the entire Portuguese border. It’s a complex project: it includes hunting, agriculture, cattle raising, fires… It’s a multisectoral and ambitious project”, he says.
By doubling the breeding population from 40 to 80 pairs, LIFE return from Egypt hopes to “lead to an improvement in the conservation status of the black vulture in Portugal, moving from ‘critically endangered’ to ‘endangered’ by the end of 2027”, note to LPN.
The project has a budget of 3.6 million euros, with three quarters of this mandatory money coming from the LIFE 2021-2027 Program of the European Union. The various partners, in addition to those already mentioned, also include the environmental organization Palombar, the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA), the Transhumance and Nature Association (ATN) and the Naturaleza y Hombre Foundation, a Spanish non-governmental organization.