A year after the beginning of the Project LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre, the balance could not be more positive. In this first year, one of the main tasks was to conduct an exhaustive survey of a set of variables needed to elaborate a map of priority areas for the Iberian lynx and the Black Vulture, within the project’s intervention area. One of the variables that took more time to the project’s team and cooperators was the estimation of wild-rabbit abundances that allowed us to confirm the low abundances of this prey in most of the sampled area. The map, almost completed, will allow identifying the most suitable properties and hunting areas for intervention and implementation of management measures to improve the survival and reproduction conditions of the Iberian lynx and the Black Vulture. The management agreements will soon be signed with the landowners and/or managers of these properties and hunting areas, in order to implement the first actions on the field, some of which are already under preparation, such as the construction of artificial nests for the Black Vulture. Under the scope of this action, we have already organized the first workshop of the project on the use of artificial nests in the conservation of the Black Vulture and other arboreal birds of prey (learn more here) and started the census of necrophagous birds to monitor these animals abundances over time (until today we have completed three counting).
But this is not the only type of actions that are already taking place in the field… The environmental education activities at the schools of the Mourão, Moura and Barrancos region started in the autumn and, until today, more than 250 children have heard about the project! Also, the team members of the area of social intervention concluded the first phase of inquiry to evaluate public attitudes of local populations and the results’ analyze is almost concluded. Furthermore, the project has been represented in several meetings (including scientific) and events over the country, as well at the media, with emphasis to two reportages in two important television channels (see here) and several national and regional radios. Dissemination went beyond borders through the website of the project, now also available in English, allowing all over the world to better know this conservation project and follow up its developments and results.
This was just the first of four years. From now on, activities and results will be intensified in order to give response to the big challenge the LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre project has ahead: the enhancement of the survival, feeding and breeding conditions of the Iberian lynx and Black Vulture in the Southeast of Portugal and the involvement of society in the conservation of nature and biodiversity.

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