Newsletter / Blog
2013-02-03 Please Help - Azores Bullfinch Project
Since 2003, the
Globally Threatened Azores Bullfinch Pyrrhula murina, has benefitted
considerably from a highly successful conservation project, initiated and run
by SPEA - BirdLife's Portuguese Partner and its official Species Guardian.
Their award-winning project tackles complicated habitat restoration and
provides a boost to the local Azorean economy through sustainable ecotourism
and employment, benefiting native islanders' livelihoods.
Azores Bullfinch, or Priolo as it is known locally, is endemic to the island of São Miguel and is totally reliant on its
natural laurel forest habitat which is under extreme pressure from non-native
invasive plant species.
SPEA's long-term conservation project has already recovered more than 250
hectares of natural forest with 150,000 native saplings re-planted. As a
result, the population of Azores Bullfinch has been stabilised, at least
for now, and its threat level has been down-listed from Critically Endangered
to Endangered. But the Priolo remains one of Europe's
most threatened species and its precarious future still hangs in the balance.
More work is needed to ensure population gains can be maintained and that the
species' long-term future can be secured.
The priority is continued forest restoration and maintenance but keeping
invasive plants under control in montane habitat is both challenging and
costly.
Over the last ten years support for the project has been provided from several
international sources including BirdLife Species Champions' Birdwatch Magazine
and the British Birdwatching Fair through the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions
Programme. However, the main funding has been provided by the Azorean
Government and the EU Commission via two substantial LIFE + grants. Now these
grants have come to an end and with severe European economic constraints
threatening future investment from both local Azorean and national Portuguese
government, finding the money required to keep this flagship project running is
again an urgent priority.
To spearhead the fundraising effort and keep a vital project team of 22 trained
people in place, SPEA have launched a new campaign.
Please make a
contribution if you are able and then support this campaign by promoting it as
widely as you can. |