Line of action:

Terrestrial ecosystems

Status:

Finalizado

Execution date:

2020

End date:

2022

Total budget:

36.613,30 €

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

16.716,05 €

The little bustard(Tetrax tetrax) is a species of open agricultural habitats dominated by rain-fed cereal crops or extensive pastures. In Spain, the species is present in 12 autonomous communities and its main populations have historically been found in the southern Meseta (Castilla-La Mancha) and Extremadura, with smaller and more scattered populations in the northern Meseta (Castilla y León), Ebro valley and Andalusia.

Their populations in Spain have suffered a decline of more than 50% in the last 15 years, mainly associated with changes in the agricultural management of the territory, to which are added new threats, such as, for example, the expansion of photovoltaic plants on agricultural land.

For this reason, the identification of critical conservation areas at the national level for the species was established as a key action to be developed. This project has worked along these lines to delimit these critical areas on the basis of objectives and criteria agreed upon at the national level by the different actors involved, using a novel methodology developed for this purpose.

The general objective has been to identify, based on a common methodology, objectives and criteria on a national scale, the critical areas for the conservation of the little bustard(Tetrax tetrax) in Spain.

Specific goals include:

• Generate models of distribution of the little bustard during the breeding and wintering periods for the years 2006 and 2016.
• Identify territorial/population objectives at the national and Autonomous Community levels, as well as other criteria, threats and limitations that should be taken into consideration when defining critical areas for the conservation of the species.
• Identify critical areas for the conservation of the little bustard at the national level.
• To disseminate the actions and results of the project and facilitate the exchange of information between autonomous communities, researchers and other organizations related to the management of the species.

• Development of distribution models of the species at the national level, both for the breeding and wintering periods, based on data from the available national censuses of the species (2006 and 2016) and evaluation of the degree of coverage of the distribution area of the little bustard by the current network of protected areas.
• Definition of the concept of critical conservation areas and the objectives to be pursued with their declaration.
• Development of threat maps and conditions for the declaration of critical areas for the conservation of the little bustard.
• Spatial planning exercise for the identification of critical areas for the conservation of the little bustard at the national level.

• Definition of the three main criteria to identify critical areas for the species: the viability of the species, in terms of extent and quality of habitat throughout its life cycle; the representativeness of critical areas for harboring populations in all regions where the little bustard is present in Spain, and connectivity between populations.
• Development of a methodological proposal for spatial planning to identify key areas in the Spanish territory that simultaneously meet the three criteria.
• The results show that only a small percentage of the areas that meet the habitat quality requirements for the species at the national level are located within protected areas declared for this purpose (Special Protection Area for Birds – SPA).
• Mapping of different threats to the conservation of the little bustard: livestock density at the municipal level, density of transport networks per km2 at the regional and local level, and population density.
• Preparation of a scientific-technical report and its submission to the administrations of 11 autonomous communities, as well as to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.