Nature Conservation

Wetlands provide countless benefits or “ecosystem services”, which range from supplying freshwater, food and biodiversity, to flood control, groundwater recharge, and climate change mitigation. Throughout Europe, wetlands continue to decline in area and quantity despite numerous policy and legal targets to halt their decline[1]. The main causes of wetland loss include land use change to forestry and agriculture, urbanisation, invasive alien species and climate change. Hunting and wetland conservation Of the 208 projects currently listed in the FACE Biodiversity Manifesto, 90 are active...

The latest national survey conducted in the Republic of Ireland suggested that Irish Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus hibernicus) suffered a 70% decline in 40 years to a population of roughly 4,200 birds. While many projects were initiated in response to this, the Boleybrack Mountain Red Grouse Project stands out as a best case example. Glenfarne Gun Club began a habitat management program to increase the red grouse population on neighbouring Boleybrack Mountain Special Area of Conservation. In doing so, Glenfarne Gun Club...

Spanish and Portuguese hunters participated in the successful project LIFE+IBERLINCE, which has tripled the number of Iberian lynx in only one decade from less than 100 individuals in 2002 to more than 400 in 2015. LIFE+Iberlince has been running from 2011, and will finish in 2017; there have also been three other previous Life projects since 2002. The current project, “Recovery of the historical distribution of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Spain and Portugal”, was set up by the...

The European Commission has made public its expert study: Evaluation Study to Support the Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitats Directives. The study, which was completed in March 2016, was only made public yesterday due to an official access to document request made by the WWF The report was prepared by a group of experts led by Milieu Ltd. on the request of the European Commission in the framework of its “Fitness Check” of the Birds and Habitats Directives. In...

The development of the revised Strategic Plan for the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) for the period 2019 – 2027 was formally launched at the meeting of the AEWA Strategic Plan Working Group in Bonn on the 28-30 June 2016. FACE was represented by Dr. David Scallan. The meeting brought together a wide range of AEWA stakeholders, including designated representatives from Contracting Parties, members of both the Standing and Technical Committees as well as a number of key AEWA partner organizations. Aside...

Hunters team up with public bodies responsible for state forestry services in Poland in order to preserve the country’s capercaillie population. In the provinces of Dolnoslaskie in Poland’s South-East, and Podlaskie in the North-West, populations of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), the largest member of the Grouse family, are in decline. At the beginning of the 20th century there were more than 3000 capercaillies living in Poland, however recent population estimates put the current figure at 350-450 individuals. Shrinking populations of...

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