It seeks to improve the conservation and demographic status of the main habitats and species of the Iberian West.

The Nature and Man Foundation (FNYH) has developed the project “Club de Fincas por la Conservación del Oeste Ibérico”, with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation to improve the conservation and demographic status of the main habitats and species of the Iberian West (by area occupied/representative and/or by conservationist interest depending on their scarcity or ecological importance) of the Meso-Mediterranean and supra-Mediterranean bioclimatic levels. To this end, it is proposed to intervene in a total of 10 Natura 2000 areas with different actions to improve birds (in SPAs) and habitats (in SCIs).

This project has been developed in the central area of Portugal and in Spain, in the communities of Extremadura and Castilla y León in the area called Western Iberia, an extensive territory of enormous ecological value at European level. It includes the border areas between the provinces of Zamora, Salamanca, Cáceres and Badajoz on the Spanish side and their corresponding Portuguese areas on the other side of the administrative border (Arribas Portuguesas, Raia Historica, Sabugal, Valle del Tajo and Sierra de San Mamede in Portugal). The Iberian West is one of the main bastions of European biodiversity.

It has been possible to increase the conservation of private areas with high environmental value through the custody of more than 10,000 ha, of which around 2,500 ha of pastures, 1,125 ha of riparian forests and 1,000 ha of wetlands have been recovered, thus creating habitats for lesser kestrels, Egyptian vultures, black vultures, etc. stork and Bonelli’s eagle. In addition, the project has had a large number of volunteers from the towns involved in the project.