The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, participated today, in Fuentes de Nava, Palencia (Castilla y León), in the presentation of the results of the Life Nature project “Restoration and management of lagoons: Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) Canal de Castilla”, carried out by the Global Nature Foundation.

The project, whose budget amounts to 1,593,440 euros, has 40% co-financing from the European Commission and with the support of other entities such as the Duero Hydrographic Confederation, the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, the Provincial Council of Palencia and the Biodiversity Foundation.

The main objective of this project is to guarantee the restoration, conservation and management of more than thirty wetlands associated with the Canal de Castilla, with exceptional natural values, and which present habitats and species of community interest.

Work began in October 2006. The actions carried out during these four years have made it possible to put the planned objectives into practice: the hydrological restoration works that allowed the installation of systems to improve the hydrological supply in a total of 13 wetlands, thus guaranteeing the maintenance of minimum water levels that make possible the development of biological processes in the wetlands.

Another of the main milestones of the project has been the development of a Management Plan for these wetlands. This document, which will regulate the uses and exploitation of wetlands, indicates the priority lines of conservation and, in short, guarantees the long-term conservation of wetlands, while allowing a broad participation of all the social agents involved.
The management and management work has mainly consisted of the environmental adaptation of the wetlands through the generation of shrub screens. More than 84,000 shrubs of typical riverside species have been planted in the wetland environment, creating an interesting habitat for numerous species of plants and animals, as well as improving wetland protection.

Novel marsh vegetation management systems have also been developed, which has increased productivity and increased biodiversity in the wetland complex.

The wetlands of the Canal de Castilla did not have, before the beginning of this initiative, elements of interpretation and public use. Thanks to the Life project, three interpretive routes have been designed and arranged, with panels, informative tables and two bird observatories.

Environmental education and awareness has been, precisely, one of the main lines of action of the project. Thus, a traveling exhibition has been designed that travels through all the municipalities affected by the project. 45 talks have been given in schools and town halls, which have reached more than 5,000 people. A large number of interpretive material (educational booklets, posters, brochures, among other materials) has also been prepared, which has been distributed free of charge within the area of action.

The work to monitor the results has made it possible to carry out censuses of the most emblematic and endangered species of this natural space, such as the purple heron, the marsh harrier or the bittern. Radio-monitoring work has been carried out on the first two species to obtain more precise information about their habitat, all aimed at implementing more effective conservation measures.