PRESS NOTE by Fondo Amigos del Buitre (FAB), ANSAR and Grupo Triacanthos (Aragón, Spain).
It is now three years ago that the Government of Aragón (GA) approved a new law (DECRETO 207/2005), closing traditional “Muladares” and starting to collect dead livestock, mainly sheep, goats and cattle. Traditionally an important part of dead livestock has been available to Griffon
Vultures and other scavengers that now lost one of their essential food sources. Local groups on nature conservation and Farmer Associations asked the GA repeatedly to adapt their legislation to the European rules reflected in a Spanish National Law (Real Decreto de 25 de mayo de 2007).
It is now three years ago that the Government of Aragón (GA) approved a new law (DECRETO 207/2005), closing traditional “Muladares” and starting to collect dead livestock, mainly sheep, goats and cattle. Traditionally an important part of dead livestock has been available to Griffon
Vultures and other scavengers that now lost one of their essential food sources. Local groups on nature conservation and Farmer Associations asked the GA repeatedly to adapt their legislation to the European rules reflected in a Spanish National Law (Real Decreto de 25 de mayo de 2007).
Since many years the Fondo Amigos del Buitre (FAB) studies the population of Griffon Vultures at the pre-Pyrenees of Aragón (Riglos, Guara). In these areas we find important colonies, representing about 5% of the Spanish population in 1999 (SEO/BirdLife).
In 2008 the population of Griffon Vultures in this area has fallen by 21% and the number of fledged young by 48%, as compared to the 5-year period before the crisis. In 2008 62 out of each 100 nests failed. The 2007 results were quite worse. As the Griffon vulture can life more than 20 years we still can’t see the final result of these new politics. The future of the populations depends on the now reduced number of new fledglings each year. In future numbers will keep going down as a result of lack of food and no natural death causes as crashes with windmills, car accidents and increasing intoxications.
Since 2006 the press published numerous “attacks” on weak and ill livestock, as well as situations of Vultures waiting at farm roofs for an animal to die, eating garbage and dying by road accidents. Farmers, birdwatchers and conservationists still cannot believe their Government is not acting to resolve this crisis.
The Government set up 34 feeding artificial feeding sites. At these stations some 80 tons of food a month have been distributed in 2007, mostly by the governmental company Sirasa (www.sirasa.com). This policy of feeding sites is based on a report that confirms that 24.000 Griffon Vultures live in Aragón. Our calculations show that these 80 tons of food represent less than 15% of the food needed by these vultures.
Local conservation groups conclude that the actual policy of the regional Government is the direct cause of the loss of the Griffon Vulture population in Aragón, and probably of other pecies as the Egyptian Vulture and the Red Kite. Again we ask the Government to take new steps to improve the situation, based on National (Real Decreto 664/2007) and European rules, and to comply with the obligations set in the Bird Directive. The French model with farmers managing their own Muladar is the best solution for the conservation of Vultures and other carrion eating birds in Spain.
More information in English about the Vulture crisis in Spain on:
