Cartography and identification of priority areas for intervention
Contacts and negotiation of management agreements for landowners, managers and olive producers
Studies and elaboration of plans



Cartography and identification of priority areas for intervention

The action of Cartography and identification of priority areas for intervention for the Iberian lynx and the Black Vulture is concluded. This intense work lasted throughout the entire first year of the project and had several stages, from the selection of variables and sub-variables important for the species, data collection, analysis and intersection of geographic information and the elaboration of a final report. Its main objectives were: 1) characterize and evaluate the five areas of the Natura 2000 network (see the project’s intervention area) in terms of its potential for both target species; 2) identify priority areas for the implementation of the conservation measures envisaged in the project; and 3) obtain a list of landowners, farmers and/or game managers of those priority areas, to contact them aiming the establishment of management agreements.
Therefore, at a first stage, it was completed a bibliographic research, based on the species’ ecological requirements, and advisory was asked to experts in the subject (the project’s Technical and Scientific Advisory Group) in order to define the main variables and sub-variables to use in the analysis. The variables defined were habitat, food, disturbance and topography (the latter only for the Black Vulture’s analysis). The number of sub-variables was higher and they differed whether the analysis referred to the Iberian lynx or the Black Vulture.
Afterwards, there was an effort to obtain the base information needed for the analysis. While some data can be freely found available online (e.g. topography), others needed to be formally requested to the entities responsible for them (e.g. cattle abundance). In other cases, it was necessary to perform field work through pedestrian transects (e.g. wild-rabbit’s abundance), surveys (e.g. wild ungulates’ abundance) and even calculate and perform derivation from other variables (e.g. density of ecotone).
The next step was to analyze the data, which consisted on intersecting variables and sub-variables using a Geographical Information System (ArcGIS 9.3) through an evaluation method by Multiple Criteria, more specifically the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC). This method allows giving different importance values to each variable and sub-variable so that during the analysis it is given a different weight according to its importance for each species. Given that both species exhibit differences in their ecological requirements and will be targeted with distinct conservation measures, the analysis followed slightly different approaches, with the weighting values being also distinct for each species. In the case of Black Vulture, it were accomplished two parallel analyses for selecting two kinds of priority areas, one related with breeding and another with feeding.
This analysis resulted in three maps of suitability to identify priority areas for intervention, one for the Iberian lynx and two for the Black Vulture (breeding and feeding), allowing us to identify the best areas to implement conservation measures for each target species. With the delimitation of these areas it was possible to compile a list of hunting areas and estates, which will work out as a working basis, allowing closer contacts, negotiate management agreements and implement the conservation measures needed to reach the objectives proposed by the project.
Finally, under this action, it was elaborated a report where all the methodology followed to perform this analysis is described, as well as its results.