Restoring the Iconic Bearded Vulture and other Vulture Species to their Former Range in Europe – a Success Story.

For our December Lunch & Learn presentation, HMA will be cohosting with the Harris Center for Conservation Education to talk vultures! We will be hearing from José Tavares and Alice Gama from the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF) in Europe.

The VCF is an international foundation committed to the conservation of European vultures. The VCF has extensive experience in captive breeding, reintroduction, restocking and conservation of vultures in their natural habitats. The VCF is the lead organisation in all aspects of the conservation of vultures in Europe. In particular, the VCF coordinates the highly successful reintroduction of the Bearded Vulture in the Alps, including the coordination of monitoring at an alpine scale, thus working with a wide range of partners, and is also reintroducing this species in Andalusia, Corsica, Grands Causses (France), Maestrazgo (Spain) and Bulgaria. The VCF also coordinates the captive breeding network for this species.

The VCF has also been translocating Cinereous Vultures for reintroduction in France and Bulgaria, and is leading the global fight against illegal wildlife poisoning, namely through the implementation of a very successful model called Wildlife Crime Academy, through which enforcement authorities and other competent agencies get their capacity and skills enhanced to fight this threat. The VCF has also co-led the production of the Vulture Multi-species Action Plan – the global blueprint for conservation of Old-World vultures, that has been endorsed by the CMS. The VCF gathers the latest data, produces best-practice and know-how on vulture conservation in Europe.

José Tavares is the VCF Director and has 30+ years of experience in implementing nature conservation solutions. At the VCF since February 2013, José is working towards turning the VCF into a sustainable, effective, leading organization securing the protection of vultures and their habitats. This work involves not only on-the ground conservation projects and activities on vultures, but also, crucially, organizational development and management. This includes the management of projects in multiple countries, the development of complex partnerships and stakeholder building, and problem-solving.

Alice Gama is the Financial and Administrative Manager at VCF. Natural from Portugal. BSc in Biology. Between 2003 and 2006 she developed field work about raptor migration and breeding in Costa Rica and USA, and the impact of power-lines on bird populations in Portugal. From 2007 to 2016, she worked at a local environmental NGO, in Northeast Portugal, as a conservation manager, overseeing raptor conservation projects, including EU funded LIFE projects. At the VCF since 2016, she is responsible for the financial management and supporting the organisation’s administration and bookkeeping. Even if focused on the administrative side of things, working in vulture conservation at the VCF is truly inspiring and impactful, especially as we focus a lot on creating cooperation initiatives with so many organisations across borders and continents.