The Director of Studies and Projects of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ignacio Torres, together with the Director General of Biodiversity of the Government of Cantabria, María Eugenia Calvo, and the Deputy Director of the Picos e Europa National Park, Miguel Menéndez, today inaugurated the National Seminar on the Cantabrian Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantabricus), which takes place, throughout today and tomorrow, in Potes, Cantabria.

Organised by the Association for the Conservation of Capercaillie (ACU), the seminar has the participation of more than 70 technicians from all the Autonomous Communities with the presence of Cantabrian and Pyrenean capercaillie, from France and the Principality of Andorra, as well as representatives of NGOs, scientists and private companies. The meeting focuses on forest management experiences for this species, whose study has been carried out in recent months by the ACU, within the framework of a project in collaboration with the Biodiversity Foundation.

The capercaillie is a species on which the Biodiversity Foundation is making a special effort given the extreme risk situation of its populations, due to the decline suffered in recent decades that has placed it on the verge of extinction.

In this way, and in line with the National Strategy for the Conservation of the Species, the Foundation has developed, in recent years, habitat improvement works such as, for example, selective clearing or salvage, in collaboration with SEO/BirdLife, or the installation of bee hives to promote the pollination of fruit trees that serve as food for the species. together with the Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (FAPAS).

Likewise, since 2006, and in collaboration with the Public Administrations of Asturias, Galicia, Castilla y León and Cantabria and the Picos de Europa National Park, an Ex-situ Conservation Program has been developed, whose results have been very favorable, with the capture and marking of 7 specimens of capercaillie and the breeding of the first chicks in the Center of the Principality of Asturias in the Natural Park of Redes.

All these previous efforts led the Biodiversity Foundation to coordinate a joint project last year with the Autonomous Communities, the National Park and SEO/BirdLife, with co-financing from Iberdrola, submitted to the LIFE + call for European funds, which brings together the efforts of all these entities so as not to miss a unique opportunity to recover this species so emblematic of the Cantabrian Mountains.