The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has held an informative seminar in Potes (Cantabria), in which the situation of the Cantabrian capercaillie has been addressed and the main management measures promoted within the framework of the LIFE+ Cantabrian capercaillie project for the conservation of this endangered species have been presented.
 
At the opening of the seminar ‘Advances on the LIFE+ Cantabrian Capercaillie project’, the director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, stressed that “the LIFE+ Cantabrian Capercaillie project has managed for the first time to combine the efforts of the state administration, the autonomous communities involved in the management of the Cantabrian capercaillie, civil society and the business sector in the conservation of this endemic subspecies of the Cantabrian Mountains”.
 
During the conference, which was attended by representatives of all the project partners, the main initiatives that have been carried out since the beginning of the project were presented. Among the actions, scrub clearing and tree treatments have been carried out, to promote the growth of blueberries and other shrubs, key in the diet of the species. More than 30 km of power lines and dangerous livestock fences have also been removed or signposted, with the participation of 72 volunteers.
 
Likewise, the first experiences of releasing specimens into the natural environment have been carried out, which, after spending two months in the wild in which they fed autonomously, died from various causes, such as predation or the snowstorm that hit the area at that time.
 
This LIFE+ project “Programme of urgent actions for the conservation of the capercaillie and its habitat in the Cantabrian Mountains” has as its fundamental objective to stop the decline of this subspecies exclusive to the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and promote its recovery, as it is one of the most endangered species in the Iberian Peninsula.