PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The well-preserved pine groves remaining on the island of Tenerife harbour the great spotted woodpecker in the guise of a subspecies (Dendrocopos major canariensis) endemic to this island. These pine groves are located on the western side of the island, in the Corona Forestal nature park, which is a Special Protection Area and Site of Community Interest of the Natura 2000 network. These forests offer the great spotted woodpecker its optimum habitat, because it requires tree trunks with dry branches for nest-building. However, the forestry policies carried out in the past altered the forest composition, which in turn had a negative impact on the woodpecker's conservation status, as the number of dead pine trees was reduced considerably. Other problems affecting the species' conservation are forest fires and the reduced availability of water as a result of excessive groundwater exploitation. The population of great spotted woodpecker was estimated at around one hundred pairs.
OBJECTIVES
To guarantee the survival of the species, it seemed indispensable to restore its habitat and to eliminate or reduce the factors threatening it, namely damaging activities in the forestry sector and the lack of available water. One of the principal measures devised consisted of establishing a network of standing dead pines, with a density analogous to that of the natural pine groves. To address the problem of the availability of drinking water, a network of artificial automatic drinking places was set up to ensure levels of supply and to compensate for the disappearance of natural drinking places. This was complemented with a campaign pointing out the need to preserve the Canary Islands pine groves and their associated flora and fauna, with a special emphasis on forest fires prevention.
RESULTS
The successful implementation of this project laid adequate foundations to improve the conservation status of the great spotted woodpecker. These ranged from policy documents to ensure adequate management for the conservation of the species, to specific habitat management measures and awareness raising campaigns. All of these were nourished by preliminary studies that included extensive fieldwork.
The Management Plan elaborated is the key policy tool for the species’ conservation. The plan defined adequate guidelines to manage the species and its habitat and regulated the necessary actions to conserve the species, including the continuation of the project actions plus a series of other important measures to tackle key issues such as awareness on water management. The habitat management measures were the first steps of the long term strategy concluded after the field studies, which recommended drying up 770 pine trees to provide nesting stands and creating 50 drinking troughs. Ringing 168 trees during 1999 in three priority areas and around the most isolated woodpecker population started pine drying, which also took place along corridors connecting these core locations. Dry-up would take some 6-7 years to complete, and full monitoring of the effectiveness of the measure was ensured through the management plan. In turn, the effectiveness of the water troughs was readily evident despite a low level of execution (only 6 out of the 50 troughs recommended), and the drinking features attracted woodpeckers and other priority species such as the Tenerife’s blue chaffinch (Fringilla teydea teydea). Achieving the recommended number of troughs in the mid-term was also guaranteed under the management plan, which also provided for improving knowledge on water availability in some poorly known areas. Awareness-raising was very satisfactory and, in fact, the initial objectives were exceeded. High quality materials, including not-foreseen items and an excellent monograph on Canarian pinewoods, were released within a wide campaign that targeted 11.000 people among the youth and the visitors of Canarian pinewood forests. Targeting key social sectors such as those involved in water management was identified as the next step forward, since water troughs should be only a temporary measure on the way to ensure more adequate use of this critical resource for woodpeckers and wildlife in general. Some of the project’s simple and straightforward measures had begun before the project start, and thus the LIFE support was key to consolidating rather than innovating in wildlife management. One of the project’s most remarkable outcomes was its case-value as demonstrative of good planning and management. It showed that simple but well-focused and well co-ordinated projects are likely to succeed, and also illustrated the importance of carrying out certain studies on distribution, habitat and threats when the status of a species is not adequately known, as they can throw light on the conservation needs for it and guide to define the most cost-effective conservation strategies in the mid- and the long-term. This proved relevant both for on-site management and for awareness raising and dissemination objectives. The incentive effect of this LIFE project on the administrations engaged with nature resource management within the Canarian Government was also outstanding, for the management plan would commit themselves to maintain the activities identified as important for the conservation of woodpeckers in Tenerife. This and other LIFE projects led to adopting new practices; for example, clear-cutting of afforested areas to obtain mature forests suitable to support wildlife became a forest management priority, and a close link between the implementation of the Regional Forest Plan and the specific measures to improve the forest structure devised in the management plan for the woodpecker was set up. The need to accomplish similar improvements in water management policy and practice in Tenerife Island became blatant also in the framework of the woodpecker conservation, and contributed to urging awareness raising and other strategies to prevent over-exploitation. The project success had direct benefits on Natura 2000, for suitable management guidelines were produced for the SPA/SCI targeted, Corona Forestal, which includes most of the home range of D. major canariensis. As pointed out in the Action Plan for the species by BirdLife International, the implementation of good management in the SPA would provide adequate protection for the species.
Socio-economic benefits linked to this project can also be highlighted, although these mainly refer to capacity building for nature conservation among the expert team set up for the project and the changes promoted in forestry. Achieving wider benefits in forestry (e.g. prevention of forest fires and habitat loss/fragmentation) and in key sectors linked to water management was the challenge after the project. Effective integration would be reflected in a positive evolution of the species population in the mid-term.
