The Director General of Biodiversity and Environmental Quality of the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO), Javier Cachón, has presented, at the MITECO stand at the National Congress of the Environment (CONAMA 2018), the results of the LIFE+ Desmania project.
The Biodiversity Foundation has coordinated, between 2012 and 2018, this project, which has had as partners the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castilla y León, the Natural Heritage Foundation, CESEFOR, SOMACYL and Tragsatec. It has also had the support of the Miño-Sil, Tagus and Duero Hydrographic Confederations, research centres and fishermen’s associations.
Aware of the regression of the Iberian desman (Galemys pyrenaicus), an endemic species classified as endangered in the Central System and vulnerable in the rest of the country, this project was launched six years ago, with the aim of acting in an urgent and coordinated manner for the conservation of this small mammal.
The LIFE+ Desmania project has been an important opportunity to carry out the vast majority of the actions contemplated in the National Strategy for the Conservation of the species. Action has been taken in 33 Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) of the Natura 2000 Network, distributed between the provinces of León, Palencia, Zamora, Ávila, Salamanca and Cáceres.
Today, we know the species much better in these areas than we did 6 years ago. And this has been possible thanks to the intensity of the sampling of the species: more than 9,000 km of river have been analysed and more than 1,000 sections have been sampled. 1,200 samples have also been genetically analyzed. In addition, a good population of Iberian desman has been found in the province of Ávila, which was unknown to date.
These samplings have served to identify its main obstacles and threats and focus the conservation actions of the project. In this way, a significant number of physical barriers that could prevent the free transit of the desman have been eliminated: 12 demolitions of dams, dams or slabs; 4 restorations of waste dumps; silvicultural work and reforestation along more than 80 km of rivers, removal of waste of various kinds in 187 km of riverbed, 5 km of felling and treatment in alder groves with Phytophthora alni.
An important effort has also been made to control the populations of an invasive species as harmful to the species as the American mink (Neovison vison), whose predation is reducing desman populations. Within the framework of the project, numerous trapping days have been carried out, 28 training sessions and more than 450 agents have been trained, a fundamental implication for the sustainability of the action in the future.
IMPROVING SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE OF A GREAT BIOINDICATOR
On the other hand, the Iberian desman being one of the commonly called “unknown or forgotten species”, the LIFE+ Desmania project has meant a substantial leap in the knowledge of the species by the local population and especially for the actors with the greatest presence in the rivers, mainly fishermen and irrigators, through the actions and awareness and dissemination materials that have been carried out on the ground.
Almost 13,000 schoolchildren have participated in the 500 workshops given; 43 dissemination and awareness campaigns have been organized for the general public with 1,000 attendees; 410 people have been involved in the 17 days of environmental volunteering; The traveling exhibition has been seen by more than 45,600 visitors in the 32 locations where it has been exhibited and 7 technical seminars have been held.
The project has been a great opportunity to increase knowledge and management about the species, verifying that its presence is associated with the best conserved riverbeds and confirming its important role as a bioindicator of the good health of rivers, which makes it very vulnerable to changes induced by some human activities. including the effects of climate change.
The work methodology applied in this project, increasing the effort, collaboration and coordination between administrations and social agents will be the best formula to reverse the population regression of the Iberian desman in the Iberian Peninsula.
MEETING WITH THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES
To share the results of the LIFE+ Desmania project and to find out the status of the populations and other projects, a meeting of the Working Group of the species was held today at the headquarters of the Biodiversity Foundation, coordinated by the Ministry for Ecological Transition within the framework of the National Strategy for the conservation of the Iberian desman.
It was attended by representatives of the autonomous communities of Extremadura, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, Asturias, Aragon, and La Rioja, as well as the Hydrographic Confederations of the Duero, Tagus, the Guadarrama National Park and the LIFE+ Desmán project in France.
The session has served to confirm the generalized decline of the species and to share the advances in knowledge and conservation of the Iberian desman, with the aim of collecting proposals for the updating of the Strategy and to be able to continue acting in coordination for its recovery.
PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
Also within the framework of CONAMA 2018, the Director General of Biodiversity and Environmental Quality, Javier Cachón, presented the Practical Guide to Ecological Restoration, which aims to be a tool for the application of the future State Strategy for Green Infrastructure, Connectivity and Ecological Restoration. It also seeks to provide a methodology of ecological restoration for the restorations of natural capital in Spain. This document arises from the Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative, one of the important commitments of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, which works with 22 large companies and important business and conservation entities to integrate biodiversity into the business sector.
This guide is the result of collaborative work that has had the participation of more than 100 people and an outstanding example of public-private collaboration to achieve consensual solutions to common problems.
The Spanish Business and Biodiversity Initiative (IEEB) seeks to improve the consideration of biodiversity in business strategies and has served as a platform to highlight business examples that reflect this commitment. Likewise, this coalition has allowed collaboration in specific conservation projects, demonstrating that alliances between the company and the administration can lead to attractive formulas for both parties, which help to develop national commitments in the conservation of biodiversity.
