The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, today visited some of the actions that are being carried out on the Asturian side to improve the situation of the capercaillie, within the framework of the LIFE+ Capercaillie project.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, today visited some of the actions that are being carried out in Asturias to improve the situation of the capercaillie, within the framework of the LIFE+ Capercaillie project.

An initiative developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, through the Biodiversity Foundation, which aims to halt the decline of this subspecies endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, which in recent decades has lost a large part of its population, and promote its recovery.

During her visit, Sonia Casteñeda was accompanied by Fina Álvarez, Director General of Natural Resources of the Principality of Asturias, Rafael Landín, Director of the Iberdrola Foundation, Carmen Recio, Head of the Sustainability and Biodiversity Area of the Foundation, and Luis Robles, Coordinator of the LIFE+ Cantabrian Capercaillie project.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation has highlighted “the technical complexity of the project because the causes of the decline of the population are unknown, so it is necessary to make an effort on several fronts of action, including captive breeding, which until now had not been carried out with the Cantabrian capercaillie”.

The project is 50% co-financed by the European Commission through the LIFE+ funds, and has as partners the Autonomous Communities of Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León (through the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León), with the Autonomous National Parks Body, with SEO/BirdLife and with funding from the Iberdrola Foundation. present since the beginning of the project, and is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation.