The project seeks to contribute to improving the conservation status of Emberiza schoeniclus lusitánica, a Lusitánica subspecies of the marsh bunting.

The project “Recovery of Emberiza schoeniclus lusitanica” seeks to contribute to improving the conservation status of the Lusitanian subspecies of the marsh bunting, listed as endangered in Spain, solving knowledge gaps that limit the design of habitat management strategies.

In this way, this initiative will determine the use and selection that the subspecies makes of the different environments existing in the wetlands it occupies in the breeding season and will document the evolution of the subspecies’ habitat. It will also explore what factors related to marsh vegetation can condition the occupation or not of a wetland, in addition to establishing habitat management guidelines.

The activities to be carried out by the Association for the Promotion of Conservation Biology, the entity that develops the project, are:

• Actions to determine the use and selection that the subspecies makes of the environment
• Procurement, testing and fine-tuning of radio-tracking equipment
• Establishment of radio-tracking stations and
• Control of the actual reception range of the emitters
• Actions to document the habitat of the subspecies and its evolution in different localities
• Actions to assess the usefulness of multispectral remote sensing in the automated mapping of aquatic vegetation associated with the habitat of the subspecies
• Development of guidelines for habitat management.