Last week, students and professors from the Master in Global Environmental Change went on an excursion to Picos de Europa, in the north of Spain. This is one of the most remarkable National Parks of Spain, with dramatically sculpted mountain landscapes, and a very interesting area to study the effects of global socio-economic and environmental changes on biodiversity and land use. What is unique about the Park is that several villages are located within its boundaries. The interaction between people and landscapes is crucial to conservation in Picos.
Diego Martin of The Bearded Vulture Foundation explains the challenges of ecosystem conservation in Picos de Europa
Land use in Picos de Europa has undergone rapid change over the last decades. Traditionally, people lived from sheep and goat holding. In the summer, shepherds would bring their animals to the summer pastures. Cheese production converted perishable milk into a storable product that could be eaten in winter, or sold.
In recent years, however, people have massively shifted from goats and sheep to cows, encouraged by European Union subsidies. Others have abandoned agriculture altogether. The remaining shepherds are struggling to keep their business going. As livestock grazes less, some pastures are slowly overtaken by young forests. This isn’t necessarily good news for biodiversity, though. Some species depend on human activities for their survival.
The Bearded Vulture is a case in point. This species feeds exclusively on the bones of sheeps and goats. As sheep and goat farming disappeared from the area, so did the Bearded Vulture, which became extinct in the 1960s in Picos de Europa. The Bearded Vulture Foundation, which we visited on the second day of the excursion, is working on the conservation of biodiversity in the region. This organization recently reintroduced the species to the area. To ensure that the vultures can find food, the Foundation started a project to support sheep farming. It connected local shepherds to restaurants in the area, to supply them with lamb meat. A local brand was created to add value to this product. This is a very interesting example of a project that combines environmental sustainability and local development.
The director of the park talked to us about the challenges of the administration to manage this park. The park deals with more than a million visitors per year, local, regional, and national authorities, villages within the park, and very complicated logistics due to the long distances of the mountain roads, which are frequently covered by snow. Professor Patricia Mateo demonstrated ecological field techniques, especially the monitoring of vultures. We got an impression of the challenges of scientific field work and biodiversity monitoring in a mountainous region. Obviously we did not forget to sample some of the excellent cheeses and ciders from the region.
