Invited by the City Council of Moura, from May 10 – 13 we have been at the XII Olivomoura – Portugal’s National Fair of Oliviculture and I Hunting and Fishing Salon, an event that gathered one hundred expositors distributed by 3 pavilions, which were visited by several hundreds of visitors from all over the country.

 

During those 4 days, Moura’s municipality park of exhibitions and fairs offered its visitors a wide number of activities related not only with olive groves and olive oil, but also to hunting and other local practices and traditions, with several contests and exhibitions, choirs’ performance, seminars, talks and other gatherings to discuss agriculture, hunting and fishing activities.


The Minister of Agriculture, Marine, Environment and Spatial Planning, Assunção Cristas, accompanied by Moura’s Mayor, José Maria Pós-de-Mina, were the first visitants of our expositor, during the opening ceremony of the Fair, on Thursday night.

 

 

In the following days hundreds of people searched for more information near LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre expositor and its technicians, getting to know better the Iberian lynx, the black vulture and the project. Although most of them had already heard of these species, the local population still showed a lack of knowledge about their characteristics, risk of extinction and current population situation at their own geographical region.
The wide set of dissemination materials (mobile exhibition, leaflets, books) available at LIFE’s expositor, highly contributed to change this trend, offering visitors useful information about the target species and the main objectives and specific measures implemented with the project, besides privileged information conveyed by who is working in the field.


Saturday morning, took place the II Forum of Hunting, Fishing and Biodiversity, where Eduardo Santos (project coordinator) and Alfonso Godino (responsible for the conservation actions targeted at the black vulture), talked to over 60 local stakeholders about the project and the conservation actions implemented at the county, namely at Contenda’s estate (e.g. artificial nests and feeding station for black vulture, electrified fences around pastures for wild-rabbit, artificial dens for Iberian lynx). To demonstrate these actions, an artificial nest for black vulture was temporarily installed at the Fair’s entrance on an olive tree – these structures are being installed in the region on the top of holm and cork oaks and pines – trees where the black vulture builds its nests – to promote its nesting in the region.



We spoke with hunting managers, landowners, hunting guards, tourists and curious. We dicussed opinions about the conservation and management of natural resources and Natura 2000 network, we shared experiences with who lives and works in those lands for longer than we do and invited some of them to participate more actively in a project that is also theirs.


But who demanded us more attention, and who returned it more enthusiastically, were the children. With the help of the characters Manchas, an Iberian lynx cub, and Bui, a black vulture cub, and their funny game ‘The adventures of Manchas and Bui’, about one hundred children got to know better these two species and what is being done to protect their habitats. The game made a huge success! We ran out of participation rewards and invaded the neighboring expositors with a lot of enjoyment. All of them wanted a sticker of Manchas and Bui on their shirts and, out of the blue, several children were explaining visitors passing by LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre’s expositor who were Bui and Manchas!






Our aim of disclosure and inform local populations and Moura’s visitants was largely reached.
We therefore sincerely thank the organizing committee of the XII Olivomoura and I Hunting and Fishing Salon, especially the City Council of Moura, for the invitation addressed to LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre to participate in the event, as well as COMOIPREL, for the support given at the Hunting and Fishing Saloon.