An animal kingdom in Europe is disappearing

Source: Kompendium der Vögel Mitteleuropas (Bezzel,1985)

Threats

• 
  Habitat deterioration due to monoculture forests. Capercaillie need open forests with a variety of tree species, clearings, various grasses, blackberry and cranberry bushes to feed.
  
• 
  Destruction of habitat due to forestry operations and the construction of roads.
  
• 
  Hunting/poaching
  
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  Disturbances during the breeding period
  
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  Disturbance of the last remote areas by tourism industry and leisure industry (skiers, mountainbikers, hikers).
  

Solutions

• 
  Protection of habitats
  
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  Elimination of disturbance
  
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  Salvation and/or creation of quiet, bio diverse forests, with a variety of bushes and grassland to provide nourishment for Capercaillie.
  
   
  
  

BLACK STORK (Ciconia nigra)
Status: uncommon to rare; listed in Appendix II of CITES and Bern Convention

The European breeding population is estimated about 500-600 pairs.

Austria: 80-100 breeding pairs (slightly increasing)
In most of Europe the Black Stork requires areas of mature undisturbed forest with streams, ponds and wet meadows. In the east of the region may breed in more open areas with large old nesting trees. In mountainous parts of range, including Spain, will nest on cliff-faces and rocky crags. On passage feeds along freshwater margins and in wet meadows. Escaping cultivated landscapes. The birds feed principally on fish, amphibians, reptilians and insect. Migrant.

Migrates to tropical Africa for the winter, crossing the Mediterranean mainly in the east but some at Gibraltar and a few are seen on spring passage in Tunisia. Most leave Europe early August-September, the peak period at the Bosphorus is September-early October. Returning birds arrive in Europe late March-April.

Recorded as a vagrant north to Iceland and Scandinavia, most European countries outside breeding range, various Mediterranean islands, the Canaries, Azores and Madeira. British records are increasing (< 150) as Continental populations expand, mainly in the east and south in spring/summer, particularly April-June.

Distribution current/ per country
Middle East until the Pacific, Eastern Europe, Parts of Southern Europe; in the 20^th century population is slightly increasing.

A small and isolated breeding population in central Iberia is partially resident. The remainder of the population are summer visitors to central and eastern Europe from eastern Germany and the Czech Republic east to the Baltic States and Russia. Also breeds discontinuously south to Greece and northern Turkey and in the Caucasus. In recent decades has begun to increase and range is slowly expanding. Small numbers breed in eastern France and in recent decades has begun to breed in Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and Italy.

yellow=migrant Source: EC Bird Directive, http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/nature/directive/ciconia_nigra_en.htm

Threats

• 
  Intensification of land-use, change of natural forests into commercial harvested forests.
  
• 
  Disturbance through logging work and visitors during breeding time. The direct negative effects are related to forestry - the changes in the structures of the forests due to forest management, the cutting off of the residual old forests.
  
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  Drainage of meadows and swampy forests. If groundwater - table is lowered, lakes - feeding places - disappeare there.
  
• 
  River regulation. The river training works began in the 19th century. As a result of that the bends of the rivers were cut off, so the reach shortened and the slope of the riverbed increased. This caused riverbed erosion and the deepening of the riverbed. That is why the floods are not inundating the floodplains so often now then in the past and the floodplain lakes and dead branches can not get enough water.
  
• 
  Collision with powerlines and collectors.
  

FIR (Abies alba)


Distribution originally
20.000 years ago the distribution of the fir was limited to the Balkan, the Pyrenean Mountains and the Italian Apennine. Gradual spread out via upper Italy to the Southern Alps. In the recent 5000 years distribution over entire Central Europe to the Carpathian Mountains.
Distribution today

Since the 60ies massive reduction of fir population. The fir is a very sensitive indicator of pollution and forest mismanagement (regeneration in clear cuttings is hardly possible) and dies out or can’t develop young crops anymore. In the last 100 years loss of 50% of the fir population in the last 10 years reduction of fir population mainly in the Northern Alps up to 7% in mountainous areas and 11% in the midlands.

Today the fir-areas range from the Swiss Jura in the west to mid-Poland in the north, the Carpathians in the east and the Apennine in the south. The largest patches of fir can be found in Switzerland (11%), Slovenia (10%), Austria (7%), Greece (13%) and Romania (3%). The Fir needs moist soils in mountainous areas and mixed forests from an altitude of 600-900 meters - in some places up to 1400 meters and more. Tolerant to shadow in the youth. When space in the forest roof opens up and gives more light, it rapidly grows up and reaches by and by it’s full height (up to 60m) and age (150-600 years). This manner is called ”oscar-syndrom”, named by “The Tin Drum” by Gunter Grass.

Distribution of Abies alba

Threats

Solutions

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  Sustainable silvicultural management, creation of biodiverse, mixed forests, that provide the needed microclimate for the fir.
  
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  No clear cutting, selected thinning, individual tree cutting, prolongation of life cycle (cutting of adult trees only (120 years min)).
  
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  Reduction of game population (ungulates – roe deer, chamois, deer) prevents browsing damage at young firs.
  
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  Appreciation of the qualities of fir wood by the saw industry and the single user, increased sustainable plantation.
  

IBERIAN LYNX (Lynx pardinus)
The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is classified by the World Union for Nature (IUCN) as the world’s most endangered feline species. In October 2002, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species upgraded the lynx to Critically Endangered following new evidence of alarming decline.
Originally, the Iberian Lynx was found West of the Pyrenees all over Spain and Portugal. In the 80s the population size was estimated at 1100 animals. Today this number has declined to less than 200 animals. The Iberian Lynx is close to becoming the first wild cat species to go extinct.

In Spain´s Doñana and Sierra de Andújar (Eastern Sierra Morena) the estimated population is around 150 individuals. Isolated individuals are surviving in East Montes de Toledo, Western Sistema Central and Western Sierra Morena. In Portugal, new evidence not only reinforces the presence of lynx in the country but also points to the animal’s existence in areas where it was previously considered extinct.

In the 1980s: 1100 animals

Source: Delibes M. Rodriguez A. and Ferreras P.(2000) Action PLan for the Conservation of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). Council of Europe.

Today: less than 200 animals in 2 breeding places

Source: WWF Spain and WWF Medpo

Major threats to the Iberian Lynx
There are four main threats that affect this critically endangered feline:

1. 
   The destruction or alteration of its habitat, the Mediterranean forest and scrub.
   
2. 
   The isolation and the fragmentation of its populations. These are already very small and are becoming increasingly isolated, due to the construction of public works like highways or dams. They are creating new barriers between populations.
   
3. 
   The shortage of its basic prey, the rabbit, due to habitat loss and to the different epidemics that it has suffered since the fifties (Myxomatosis and Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease, the RHD).
   
4. 
   Human influence through poaching, hunting, traps, car accidents.
   

Habitat and prey loss
The Iberian lynx is dependent on a mosaic of habitats ranging from grassland to shrubland to forests. This diversity of habitats has historically been maintained by traditional agroforestry systems based on the management of cork and holm oak forests. In these forests, activities of livestock raising, firewood gathering, fruit collection and cork extraction that constitute an agroforestry system have ensured a diverse mosaic of shrub and pasture land which is best suited for the lynx and the wild rabbits it preys on. Now, agricultural subsidies are promoting the development of monocultures and plantations, thus simplifying the landscape. Land use changes, such as rural abandonment and infrastructure development, have fragmented habitat for both the lynx and for the wild rabbits. The balance between rural economy and the ecosystem which has existed for centuries in the Mediterranean is threatened and with it the lynx.
Local communities who fear a decrease in their incomes through cork harvesting try to find alternative sources of revenue and take advantage of environmentally damaging EU subsidies. Already, large tracts of land that were once Mediterranean cork and holm oak forests are now eucalyptus and pine plantations.
“The challenge is to maintain the diversity of habitats, ranging from pastureland to grassland to forest, that the lynx needs for its survival. We need to find innovative economically viable ways to secure the balance between various agroforestry activities without intensifying one use or the other", said Pedro Regato, Head of the Forest Unit at WWF Mediterranean.

The cork oak forests also host a rich variety of wildlife, including endangered species such as Barbary deer (Cervus elaphus barbarus) in Tunisia, Sardinian deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) in Italy, Iberian imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) and Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Spain and Portugal.

Portugal may soon loose its last lynxes
The construction of the Odelouca Dam in South Portugal is a concrete example where fragmentation of the lynx´s habitat may threaten its survival. Planned to be constructed inside a Natura 2000 area it is placed amidst mixed-oak forests which are ideal habitat for the Iberian Lynx. Construction of the dam would result in the continued loss of the characteristic mosaic landscapes that support the Iberian Lynx.

Substitution of large expanses of habitats of primarily shrublands and pasturelands with non-indigenous species like Eucalyptus is another pressing threat to this highly endangered species in South Portugal.

Solutions

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  Improve the use of EU environmental subsidies to promote restoration and enlargement of the landscape mosaic of different habitat types necessary for the survival of lynx and its prey.
  
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  Stop the isolation of populations and fragmentation of habitats through infrastructure development projects such as the Odeluca Dam.
  
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  Approve recovery plans by the regional governments.
  
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  Restore the rabbit population.
  
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  Control hunting and illegal poaching.
  
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  Captive breeding programs.
  

EURASIAN LYNX (Lynx lynx)

Status: Lower Risk, CITES Appendix II

Until 1800 the lynx had disappeared from all western and southern European lowlands, surviving only in large mountain ranges. The reason was mainly persecution, and deforestation due to the, expansion of human settlement. The species reached its low in the middle of the 20^th century, when all western European populations were extinct, the eastern and south-eastern populations were restricted to the Carpathian mountains and the Balcan Mountains, respectively, and even the Nordic population was dangerously reduced and divided.

Reintroduction programmes were started in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, France, Czech Republic in the 70ties. Following this reintroduction small isolated populations developed in the respective countries..

Source: Large Carnivore Initiative

Throughout Europe and Siberia, lynx are associated primarily with forested areas which have good ungulate (mainly deer species) populations. Small ungulates (roe deer, chamois) are the lynx’s primary prey, although it will also take small prey (fox, hare,…) when ungulates are scarce. Lynx are vulnerable to destruction of their ungulate prey base. Unfortunately persecution still plays a role in lynx population declines.

Habitat destruction, deterioration and alteration have impacted negatively on the lynx for centuries. For example the opening up of roads and forest tracks in previously remote areas is a major problem. The lynx's preferred habitat mosaic has also suffered at the hands of afforestation and scrub clearance schemes, road building, dam construction, and the building of holiday homes.

New infrastructure projects continue to fragment lynx populations and create new barriers in corridor areas between the remaining populations.

Major Threats:

Solutions:

BEAR (Ursus arctos)

Status: Not on the IUCN Red List but in certain countries the trade with bear products is strictly limited. In the EC FFH-Directives the brown bear is listed as priority species.

The best bear habitat has already disappeared in Europe through logging and forest clearance The planting of exotic conifers has seriously altered local ecosystems in some places. Habitat fragmentation, particularly as a result of road construction, presents serious problems for a species requiring such large areas.

Today the total number of brown bears in Europe is about 50,000 bears (ca. 14,000 outside Russia) which occur within an area of more than 2.5 million km²(800,000 km² outside Russia). These bears are found in two large (5000), three medium (500-2500), one small (100-500), and six very small (< 100) populations. Population densities vary and seem to depend on food availability, rate of harvest by humans and stage of population expansion/retreat. The highest densities (100-200 bears/1000 km²) are found in Romania and the Dinaric countries, whereas extremely low densities (0.5-1 bear/1000 km²) are found in some areas of Fennoscandia. The populations listed below are ranked by population size.

Distribution Originally

Brown bears originally occurred throughout Europe (except on the largest islands such as Ireland, Iceland, Gotland, Corsica and Sardinia), but later disappeared from most areas as human populations expanded, suitable habitat was destroyed by deforestation and agriculture, and the species was persecuted by hunting.

Major threats

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  Isolation of bear populations through roads, trains. Fragmentation of the habitats.
  Mortality caused by high-speed road and rail networks through bear habitat is a major threat in some areas including Greece and Croatia.
  
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  Non-acceptance of the local residents and farmers
  Poaching
  

Solutions

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  Reduce conflicts between humans and bears, through damage prevention and compensation
  
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  Enhance public acceptance;
  
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  Secure long term survival through proper environmental management
  
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  Monitoring and research
  
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  Habitat conservation, reduction of habitat fragmentation
  

Current bear distribution in Europe source: Swenson et al. Action Plan for the Conversation of the Brown Bear in Europe (2000), Council of Europe

Source: Swenson et al. Action Plan for the Conversation of the Brown Bear in Europe (2000), Council of Europe

For more information, please contact:

Helma Brandlmaier

WWF European Forest Programme
Ottakringer Straße 114-116 A - 1160 Wien
Austria
Tel.: + 43 1 48817 217
helma.brandlmaier@wwf.at