This initiative (with a total budget of 3,6 million Euros) seeks to foster the recovery of freshwater pearl mussel and Pyrenean desman populations in this fluvial basin.
Today, the director general of the Nature Conservancy chaired, in Santiago de Compostela, the first meeting among the work groups that will develop this programme, which also relies on the participation of the autonomous organization, Augas de Galicia, and the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC).
This morning, the director general of the Nature Conservancy, Ricardo García-Borregón, chaired the first meeting among the work groups that will develop this initiative which will last from September 2010 and August 2015. The total budget is 3.6 million Euros from which, 1.8 million Euros will be financed by the European Union.
Objective
The overall objective of this project is to help improve the conservation status of the two species, and establish suitable conditions for recovery of the original populations.
The specific objectives are, among others, to: improve habitat factors associated with the decline of both species; foster the natural dynamics of pearl mussel host fish populations and facilitate connectivity of desman population centres, implementing measures to recover the hydromorphology of certain sections affected by dams and drawdown flow and improve the conservation status of riparian forest in the project area. Among the expected results, we hope to gain good knowledge about the conservation status of these species, their habitats and the main threatening factors affecting them.
Financial Instrument Life
The Community financial instrument Life supports measures that contribute to the development, implementation and enhancement of the European Union environmental policy and legislation. It also aims at facilitating the integration of the environment into the rest of policies and achieving a sustainable development in the European Union.