The Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Water, and President of the Biodiversity Foundation, Josep Puxeu, presented, today, in León, the report on the current situation of the sector of the mountain range that separates the western and eastern populations of the Cantabrian bear.

Accompanied by the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, the Secretary of State also travels to Pola de Somiedo, Asturias, to learn about the three ‘Bear Patrols’, created within the framework of the Cantabrian Bear Project, visit the facilities of the Brown Bear Foundation –in charge of the project– and tour the habitat of this species that is sought to be gathered.

The study, a pioneer in Spain, identifies the main corridors that could serve for the transit of specimens between the western and eastern populations of brown bears, which began to separate in the middle of the last century until they became geographically and genetically isolated. The two bear populations are separated by a corridor of about 50 kilometres in length, which covers, on the Asturian side, the councils of Aller and Lena, while in the León sector it includes the municipalities of Barrios de Luna, Sena de Luna, La Pola de Gordón, Cármenes, Villamanín, Vegacervera and Valdelugueros. This sector of the mountain range is crossed by important communication infrastructures and is home to several nuclei of human activity.

The Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, co-finances this project that will allow progress in the management of the territory towards the genetic and demographic viability of the entire bear population, as established in the Strategy for the Conservation of the Brown Bear and the recovery plans of the different autonomous communities.