Bonelli’s eagle

The annual monitoring of the Catalan population of Bonelli’s eagle conducted since 1980 offered us accurate information on occupation, adult survival and productivity from a large sample of territories in Catalonia. This allowed us to study the demographic processes that shape the fate of the population and to assess its population viability in context of Western Europe.

However, despite this large amount of information, this had been analysed so far at the population level but no yet to obtain useful and precise information on the most adequate conservation measures for each specific territory. For these reasons, during 2014-2016 we undertook a pioneer project with the collaboration of the Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Council) and the financial support from the Mava Foundation, to establish the conservation targets to guarantee the viability of the Bonelli’s eagle populations in Catalonia, and to create suitable synergies with managers, practitioners and stakeholders involved in the conservation of the species to apply the required actions and to allow their long-term sustainability.

Within the context of this project, adult survival and productivity were estimated for the period 2006-2015 and preadult survival for the period 2008-2015 based on information from the annual monitoring of the Catalan population of Bonelli’s eagle. As a practical application for the conservation of this species, we draft a proposal of measures to be implemented in the studied territories addressed to increase their adult survival and productivity, and therefore increasing population growth rate. In addition, vital rates obtained for each specific territory were also evaluated to determine if they were adequate to guarantee their self-sustaining (net balance between births and deaths being positive).

One of the results of the project has been the draft of the “Guidelines for the conservation of Bonelli’s eagle populations”, with the aim that managers, practitioners, naturalists and stakeholders have a practical tool to properly manage the species in their different action frameworks (local, municipal, protected area or region), and thus helping to the conservation of the species. Chapters are grouped into two general sections that relate to two different stages required to implement conservation actions: (1) Identifying conservation targets, that is, evaluating the problem, and (2) Implementing conservation actions, that is, solving the problem. A decision tree for conservation of Bonelli’s eagle populations is provided and described in the first introductory chapter. By answering the set of questions in order, the reader will end up to one of the chapters of this document.

Finally, stakeholders involved in some way with the conservation of this species in Catalonia were inventoried, comprising 226 entities, association, administrations and private companies. All them answered a survey that was very useful the draft of these conservation guidelines. The results of the project were presented on the 3rd March 2016 at the Main Hall of the Faculty of Biology, thus favouring synergies between all stakeholders attending at the event.