Tackling threats

The Mediterranean Hotspot is subject to rapid anthropogenic change from a range of drivers, including population growth and economic development. Hence, economic development can have major negative impacts on biodiversity. However, while business is often part of the problem, it is also part of the solution.

Since 2015, IUCN-Med has been developing several activities for the conservation of threatened birds of prey in the region, involving actors from all sectors and from both shores, with a particular emphasis on their main threat: the collision and electrocution with energy infrastructures.

How We Act
 

• CAPACITY BUILDING AND SHARING EXPERIENCES: Among the activities carried out were the first seminar on the transboundary conservation of threatened raptors held in Malaga in November 2015, the organization of a regional training workshop on identification and mitigation of power-lines on threatened raptors (held in Tarifa, Spain, in November 2016) followed by two training courses on the same subject in Tunisia in 2017 and Morocco in 2018.
   

• KNOWLEDGE AND GUIDELINES: Publication of the first report on the mortality of raptors by electrocution in South-western Morocco in 2016; editing of technical documents (in French) on the impact with power-lines on birds and the effectiveness of mitigation measures in western North African countries; and development of a citizen science mobile app (e-Faunalert) in 2020.
   

First seminar on the transboundary conservation of threatened raptors held in Malaga (Spain) in November 2015.

Several national and regional authorities in charge of biodiversity conservation from both shores of the basin have been involved in this transboundary initiative: the High Commissioner for Water and Forests and Combating Desertification of Morocco, the General Directorate of Forestry of Tunisia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environmental Affairs of Spain and the Regional government of Andalusia, Spain.

The initiative was also based on a collaboration across sectors, with the active participation of NGOs and energy companies: Groupe de recherche pour la protection des oiseaux  (GREPOM/Birdlife Maroc) from Morocco, Groupe d’ornithologie  (GOMAC) of Morocco, Association « Les Amis des Oiseaux » (AAO/Birdlife) of Tunisia,  ENDESA – Enel Group from Spain, Office National de l’Eau et de l’Énergie (ONEE) of Morocco and  Société tunisienne de l'électricité et du gaz (STEG) of Tunisia.

Photo: MAVA Foundation

The financial support was provided by the MAVA Foundation.