This Foundation has recently won the Biodiversity Foundation Award in the ‘Conservation in Action’ category, after 25 years working for the recovery of this species in Mallorca, where the last island population in the world lives.

This Foundation has recently won the Biodiversity Foundation Award in the ‘Conservation in Action’ category, after 25 years working for the recovery of this species in Mallorca, where the last island population in the world lives.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, met on Friday 8 July in Mallorca with representatives of the Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture (BVCF) to learn first-hand about the project they are developing for the recovery of this species on the island, an initiative that won the Biodiversity Foundation Award in the ‘Conservation in Action’ category.

It is a long-term project that has contributed to improving the conservation status of the species in Mallorca, where the last island population in the world lives.

The Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture has been working for more than twenty years with rural people, tourism entrepreneurs and landowners to reduce the degree of threat suffered by the species, carrying out land stewardship agreements with owners of farms, agrotourism and rural hotels in the Sierra de Tramontana. recently declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in the category of cultural landscape, making the conservation of the species compatible with local economic development. Managing to involve such a sensitive and important sector for Mallorca, such as tourism, in the protection and care of the landscape and the development of respectful and sustainable tourism in the natural environment, while promoting understanding with the owners of the territory that sustains this key socio-economic activity in the Balearic Islands.

BVCF has been a pioneer in the active fight against the illegal use of poison in Spain, leading initiatives such as the SOS poison telephone, cooperation with the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Civil Guard, or active collaboration in the Antidote Program or now in the LIFE+ project “Actions for the fight against the illegal use of poison in Spain”.

It is also worth highlighting the effort to raise social awareness about the importance of vulture conservation, especially among schoolchildren, local people and tourists in the centre of Son Pons. It is a zoological centre managed by the BVCF, which has been operating in Mallorca since 1986 and is one of the pillars of this foundation’s work to maintain and export specimens to reintroduction and recovery programmes for the species.

The black vulture population in Mallorca 25 years ago had only one breeding pair and only 20 specimens. It currently has 17 pairs and more than 135 individuals. With these results, the initiative of the Foundation for the Conservation of the Black Vulture was awarded in the second edition of the Biodiversity Foundation Awards.

These awards, held every two years, recognise the work of entrepreneurs, researchers and organisations that are committed to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as communicators and creators who contribute to involving society in improving the environment.

Full information about the award: www.premiosfundacionbiodiversidad.es