The European Commission has approved a project to improve the conservation of the Egyptian vulture in the Canary Islands and Italy, as this species is present on the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote and in the Italian regions of Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia and Sicily.
The project, awarded in June of this year and presented to the LIFE Program by Enel, the majority shareholder of Endesa, will be 75% co-financed by the EU and amounts to more than 5 million euros. This investment will allow the implementation of numerous actions to prevent the extinction of this type of vulture in Italy, where only a dozen pairs nest and whose number has been reduced by more than 80% in the last 50 years, as well as continue the conservation work already started in the late 90s of the last century in the Canary Islands to conserve this same species.
The synergy between local institutions in Italy and Spain has been decisive for the awarding of the project, led by e-Distribuzione (Enel's distribution company in Italy), together with other Italian partners -ISPRA, Regione Puglia, Regione Basilicata, Federparchi- and three Spanish partners -Endesa, Government of the Canary Islands and GESPLAN-.
This LIFE project will be developed between 2017 and 2022 and will be one of the objectives of Enel Distribución and Endesa Distribución in the field of the environment.
Among the actions planned by the project (implemented in key areas for the species in Italy in the regions of Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia and Sicily, and in Spain, in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) also includes captive breeding and release into the wild of young born in captivity, protection of nesting sites, creation of feeding points and the fight against the use of poisoned baits.
In the Canary Islands, Endesa will carry out interventions for the isolation of around 220 supports, along some 22 kilometers of medium voltage power lines located in areas where the Egyptian vulture lives in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
In the case of Italy, e-Distribuzione, will coordinate the project and will carry out direct interventions in favor of the Egyptian vulture through the installation of new insulation systems in more than 500 electrical supports, along approximately 50 kilometers of medium voltage power lines that run through sensitive areas of the species, thus minimizing the risk of electrocution incidents.
History of the recovery of the Canarian Egyptian vulture
To safeguard the scarce population existing on the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Endesa collaborated with the Ministry of Environment of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, who designed an Action Plan in 1998, signing an Agreement with the Doñana Biological Station, belonging to the Higher Council for Scientific Research, to launch a LIFE Natura 04/NAT/ES/000067 Project "Conservation of the Egyptian Vulture in SPAs (Special Protection Area for Birds) Fuerteventura", which reduced the frequency with which electrocution accidents occurred. This was joined by the monitoring work and the actions developed under an Endesa Agreement with the Spanish Ornithological Society SEOBirdlife.Canarias.
Since then, Endesa has continued to work on the implementation of conservation measures for the Canarian Egyptian vulture to prevent its extinction.
The most recent project dates from 2014 with which, together with the Doñana-CSIC Biological Station, analyzed the ecological implications of the use of power lines by Canarian Egyptian vultures through GPS tracking. With the collaboration of Endesa, between 2014 and 2016 GPS tracking of five Canarian Egyptian vultures was carried out. Each of the individuals was fitted with a device that dumped the information to a computer. In this way, it was possible to identify which were the supports and roosts most used by the Egyptian vultures and proceed with the necessary corrections. Thanks to this study, the ecological role that the towers and their environment play for this species has been known in more depth. It has been verified that in areas of scarce presence of trees such as the Canary Islands, the electrical supports constitute safe points necessary for the subsistence of the species.
