On November 8, members of the technical team of the project and elements of its Technical and Scientific Advisory Group (TSAG) gathered in Garducho’s Biological Station, at Amareleja, for one more biannual meeting of the LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre project.

At this meeting, the group was reported with the results of the specific inquiry performed by CIS to evaluate the attitudes toward the conservation of the Iberian lynx, the black vulture and the Mediterranean ecosystem, targeted at hunters, hunting managers and landowners of the three areas of intervention of the project. At the last year of the project, these key groups will be surveyed again to detect and evaluate possible changes at the attitudes exhibited in this initial phase of the project.
We also highlight the discussion of a strategy for the elaboration of a poison mitigation plan, aiming the study and description of the impacts caused by the use of poison on the Iberian lynx and, especially, on the black vulture, as well as on domestic and wild species occurring at the Natura 2000 regions of Mourão, Moura and Barrancos and Guadiana Valley. For a better cooperation and synergy, the project invited to attend this meeting Catarina Machado, responsible for the implementation of the project LIFE Against Poison in the region of Mourão, Moura and Barrancos. This is an international project, leaded by Gypaetus Foundation, and that aims to evaluate and disseminate the efficiency of the innovation actions against the illegal use of poison at pilot Mediterranean areas of the European Union (Spain, Portugal and Greece), such as for example the action of a canine team for the detection of poison. Due to the overlap with LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre at the intervention area of Mourão, Moura and Barrancos, the coordination and cooperation between these LIFE projects (required by the EU LIFE – Nature Programme itself) is thereby crucial and an added value for a more efficiency of the planned actions, namely for determining the real dimension of poison use in the project’s area, identify the causes and impulses for poison use, risk areas and impact of poison use on wild populations.

The next day, the members of TSAG were led through a field visit to the first estate with which the project established a management agreement, and where measures were already applied aiming the enhancement of the survival, feeding and breeding conditions of the Iberian lynx and black vulture, such as the fertilization of pastures (in conjunction with the landowner) for the enhancement of wild rabbit populations, an important natural prey for both target species, and the construction of artificial nests for black vulture.