PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Formerly widespread in Iberia, the cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) became increasingly scarce throughout the 20th century, due to habitat loss and mortality from massive poisoning campaigns against predators as well as direct persecution, resulting in the extinction of the Portuguese breeding population in the 1970s and a low of 206 pairs in Spain in 1973. The species then started to recover in Spain, partly due to effective legal protection, the end of persecution and widespread poisoning, and the launch of targeted conservation measures. Today there are more than 2,500 breeding pairs in Spain.
The cinereous vulture’s progressive recovery and expansion in Spain allowed it to recolonise border areas in Portugal some decades later, from nearby colonies on Spanish territory, through a process which is both limited and slow, due to the colonial and highly phylopatric character of the species (i.e. individuals live in groups and tend to return to or remain near a particular area). As a result, Portuguese breeding colonies are very fragile, with low productivity, and they are threatened by several factors, including an increase in forest fires. The illegal use of poison, limited food availability due to sanitary restrictions and scarce wild herbivore populations, the consumption of unsafe food (contaminated by veterinary drugs or lead from hunting ammunition), human disturbance during the breeding season and collision with or electrocution by power lines are other major threats to the species’ viability in Portugal.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE Aegypius return project’s long-term goal is to secure favourable conservation status for the cinereous vulture in Portugal. It aims to achieve this by consolidating, enhancing and accelerating the species’ ongoing natural recolonisation through improving its habitat and foraging conditions, limiting threats and developing national capacities. As a result, it’s hoped the vulture’s national status will be downgraded from critically endangered to endangered within 5 years of the project’s completion.
The specific objectives are to:
- Increase the number of pairs (and the surface occupied) in each existing colony;
- Establish new breeding colonies in Portugal and on the Spanish side of the project area towards the Portuguese border;
- Increase the resilience to climate change and forest fires of wooded areas with breeding colonies or with high potential for nesting;
- Prevent and mitigate human disturbance affecting the species’ breeding productivity;
- Increase food availability and quality, both by improving the management of a network of vulture feeding stations in Portugal and nearby Spanish areas, optimising it for cinereous vultures, and by creating and mainstreaming unfenced feeding areas in Portugal, in partnership with the relevant authorities;
- Improve knowledge on the impact of contaminants (lead and veterinary drugs) on cinereous vultures and develop tools to mitigate and regulate them;
- Secure a permanent transition to non-lead ammunition in a significant area of the species’ range in Portugal;
- Reduce mortality linked to electrocution by providing data on cinereous vulture movements and linking with existing projects; and
- Improve the mechanisms for fighting and prevention of illegal poisoning in Portugal, thus reducing mortality caused by this key threat.
RESULTS
Expected results:
- A doubling of the breeding population in Portugal from 40 pairs to at least 80 pairs, including the establishment of at least 1 new breeding colony in Portugal (increasing the number from 4 to 5) and of 2 new breeding nuclei on the Spanish side, towards the border with Portugal;
- Increased breeding success in Portugal from 0.38 (too low for a viable population) to more than 0.5. The growth in breeding pairs and sites will enhance connectivity between colonies (also with Spain) and thus allow for a much more sustainable Portuguese population;
- Direct habitat management for fire-risk prevention on around 570 ha plus 25 km of fire strips affecting 8,000 ha or more around existing or potential cinereous vulture colonies;
- Construction of at least 120 artificial nesting platforms in areas with high breeding potential, and repair and consolidation of 105 existing natural or artificial nests;
- Establishment of 66 non-fenced vulture feeding areas – 56 in Portugal and 10 in Spain, covering a total surface area of at least 18,000 ha of extensive livestock holdings, some of which are owned by the project partners;
- Establishment of 2 new supplementary feeding stations – one in Portugal and the other in Spain;
- At least 20 cinereous vultures from rehabilitation centres released into the wild in Portugal (in Douro) to enhance and consolidate the most fragile (most distant) of the existing 4 colonies;
- Permanent transition to non-lead ammunition in 14 hunting estates (representing around 300 hunters and covering almost 28,400 ha) within the cinereous vulture distribution area in Portugal, and increased awareness of hunters at national level on the need to use non-lead ammunition;
- Creation of 2 new anti-poisoning dog units within the Portuguese Guarda Nacional Republicana, in order to improve detection, and eventual prosecution, of poisoning cases;
- Improved knowledge on the cinereous vulture’s population, habitat use, causes of mortality (including electrocution risk), movements and feeding behaviour, through the GPS tagging of 60 birds and other types of monitoring;
- Effective wardening to mitigate human disturbance to Portuguese breeding colonies; and
- Significantly increased awareness and involvement of target stakeholders (policymakers, vets, livestock producers, the forest industry, hunters, tourism operators and the media) and the general public on conservation issues regarding the cinereous vulture.
