On 21 and 22 April, the first technical meeting on the aquatic warbler, and other endangered marsh passerines and their habitats, was held in Torreblanca, in the province of Castellón.
The main aim of this meeting, envisaged as part of the project networking activities, was to share knowledge from existing conservation studies on palustrine passerines on the Iberian Peninsula.
In this two-day workshop, some fifty experts on the study and conservation of the aquatic warbler and other marsh passerines lectured on the current situation of the species over a large portion of their migration routes and breeding grounds on the Iberian Peninsula, providing details of the results of the measures adopted in recent years to address the main problems facing conservation. The data provided and the debates generated will be extremely useful for furthering the LIFE Paludicola Project.
Attendees, coming from several Spanish regions and from Portugal, gained first-hand knowledge of the project’s initial actions. Likewise, the gathering provided an opportunity to apply the experience accumulated in other similar projects conducted previously in Spain, some of which also received European Union funding through the LIFE Programme.
The first part of the meeting consisted in several papers on the situation of the aquatic warbler and other endangered marsh passerines on the Iberian Peninsula, while for the second part a visit to the Prat de Cabanes i Torreblanca Natural Park was arranged to view at first hand the actions to be performed under the project.
During the workshop at Torreblanca it became clear to what extent the current situation of several marsh passerines causes concern to the experts studying and working for their conservation, as these little birds are largely unnoticed among the Iberian wetland fauna wetlands. It is precisely the spirit of collaboration shown by attendees toward the conservation objectives that will prove a beneficial factor to these species, as highlighted by organisers and participants alike.
All participants jointly drafted the final conclusions which, together with the papers and lectures given at the conference, will be available in the documents section on the project website.