**6. The seed for new projects and initiatives**

The Spanish Atlantic region is one of the European areas with greater value for biodiversity conservation of the European territory, including a large group of habitat types and species considered of interest for conservation under Directives 92/43/EEC and 2009/147/CE. This has enabled the delimitation of a profuse set of Natura 2000 areas, which have served as support for the core areas of the set of Biosphere Reserves established in the Spanish Atlantic region. The synergy created between the importance of the hosted values and these new instruments for the protection, planning, and management of the territory have made possible the start-up of new projects and initiatives for nature conservation and sustainable development in this territory, fundamentally through the LIFE Programme of the European Union [13].

The peatland ecosystems, present throughout the entire Iberian Atlantic region, have been the subject of several restoration projects in Natura 2000 areas. It should be highlighted LIFE Parga-Ladra-Támoga project (LIFE00 NAT/E/007330), that has been complemented by LIFE Tremedal project (LIFE11 NAT/ES/000707), should be highlighted. In both cases, actions have been carried out to restore peatland habitat types (7110\*, 7130\*, 7140, 7150, 7210\*, 7230) and other types of wetlands (3110, 3190, 6410, 6510, 91E0\*), as well as the taxa of interest for the conservation that they harbor, with special attention to the priority species *Eryngium viviparum*\* and others such as *Spiranthes aestivalis* or *Narcissus pseudonarcissus nobilis*. This kind of projects is of great interest not only for the environmental benefits they generate but also because they allow for the increase of knowledge as they generate up-to-date and homogeneous information on the distribution and conservation status of the key elements for biodiversity, gathering experiences for its better management and restoration [41]. In a complementary way, the generated information allows improving and increasing the communication and awareness of society about the values and environmental services that provide the ecosystems for biodiversity conservation and specifically the types of habitats and species of interest for conservation.

The forest ecosystems have also been the subject of several LIFE projects, highlighting the LIFE BACCATA project, which aims to improve the conservation status of the yew forests (*Taxus baccata*), considered a priority habitat type (9580\*) that has a scarce distribution at the European Union level, and which is present in the Iberian Atlantic region [42]. The relevance of this project is high, since it includes the increase of the area occupied by this habitat type by 7% and an improvement in the conservation status by 26%, complemented by a genetic characterization of *Taxus baccata* in the Spanish Atlantic region, in order to determine the variability and degree of genetic connectivity between populations and the kinship structure. The dissemination, diffusion, and awareness of society about the conservation of forests in general, and of yew forests in particular, are also included in LIFE BACCATA project, together with the transfer of its results for replication to the different agents involved throughout Spanish and European territory.

Environment Agency (EEA). The core areas of the Biosphere Reserves in the Spanish Atlantic region have been included almost completely within the Natura 2000 areas, so an analysis of their SDFs has been carried out to compare diversity of the species of community interest present in each of the Biosphere Reserves of the Spanish Atlantic region has been carried out (**Table 5**).

**Plant Inverteb. Fish Herpet. Birds Mamm. Total**

Urdaibai 3 7 1 3 153 6 173 Gerês-Xurés 11 7 7 5 93 9 132 Río Eo-Oscos-Burón 2 9 4 4 85 11 115 Mariñas-Mandeo 6 6 4 4 72 7 99 Terras do Miño 6 6 4 4 61 6 87 Picos de Europa 7 13 2 4 35 13 74 Redes 2 8 0 4 45 9 68 Ancares Lucenses 7 6 1 4 42 7 67 Babia 4 3 2 3 36 8 56 Las Ubiñas-La Mesa 3 4 1 4 35 8 55 V. Omaña y Luna 4 3 2 3 33 8 53 Ancares Leoneses 4 6 2 5 30 5 52 Somiedo 4 3 0 3 35 7 52 Valle Laciana 5 4 2 2 33 6 52 Muniellos 2 6 0 3 32 7 50 Área de Allariz 1 1 1 0 32 5 40 Argüellos 5 3 2 4 6 7 27 Alto Bernesga 3 1 0 3 6 5 18

38 Selected Studies in Biodiversity

The total number of present species in the Biosphere Reserves of the Spanish Atlantic region is high as a whole and depends to a large extent on the diversity of birds, since they are the most numerous group by far. In this way, Biosphere Reserves with the largest number of species (>80 species) are Urdaibai, Gerês-Xurés, Río Eo-Oscos-Burón, Mariñas-Mandeo, and Terras do Miño, which in turn are those that have a greater number of bird species (>60 species). Also, noteworthy are a set of flora (11) and fish (7) species of Gerês-Xurés, invertebrates (13) in Picos

The Spanish Atlantic region is one of the European areas with greater value for biodiversity conservation of the European territory, including a large group of habitat types and species

de Europa, or mammals in Picos de Europa (13) and Rio Eo-Oscos-Burón (11).

**6. The seed for new projects and initiatives**

**Table 5.** Richness of species in Biosphere Reserves of the Spanish Atlantic region.

Other conservation projects have focused on species of interest for conservation, with special attention to those considered in danger of extinction. In this case, there is no doubt that in the Cantabrian Mountains two species have received the greatest investigative and conservative effort: the brown bear (*Ursus arctos*\*) and the capercaillie (*Tetrao urogallus*).

The territorial area formed for the most of the Biosphere Reserves of the Spanish Atlantic region (Os Ancares Lucenses, Los Ancares Leoneses, Muniellos, Somiedo, Valle de Laciana, Babia, Valles de Omaña y Luna, Las Ubiñas-La Mesa, Alto Bernesga, Los Argüellos, Redes, and Picos de Europa) forms a continuum in which various instruments and actions for the conservation of *Ursus arctos*\* have been set in motion. These instruments and initiatives include the monitoring of the Cantabrian brown bear population and brown bear habitat improvement actions, through several LIFE projects that have been developed in recent decades (Corredores Oso, Oso/Cantabria, Oso/Galicia, Oso en Asturias, LIFE Bear Defragmentation, etc.). The initiative for the implementation of these projects arose from the provision of the Spanish Strategy for the Conservation of the Cantabrian Brown Bear [43]. However, new projects were also initiated seeking synergy between brown bear conservation and other aspects such as climate change ("Osos CO2") or insect conservation ("Abejas en Acción"). In a complementary way, support is available for the maintenance of mountain livestock by the different regional governments where brown bear is present.

**Author details**

**References**

**20**:267-282

Javier Ferreiro da Costa\* and Pablo Ramil-Rego

Printing Office; 2005. 45 p.

UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/X/2; 2010. 13 p.

World Network. París: UNESCO; 1996. 21 p

\*Address all correspondence to: ibader.bio@gmail.com

Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Lugo, Spain

IBADER (Instituto de Biodiversidade Agraria e Desenvolvemento Rural)-GI-1934 TB,

[1] United States Department of the Interior. The National Parks: Shaping the system. Washington, DC: National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, US Government

Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72515

41

[2] Hernández-Pacheco E. Comunicación respecto a los Parques nacionales y a los Monumentos naturales de España. Boletín de la Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. 1920;

[3] Chape S, Harrison J, Spalding M, Lysenko I. Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets. Philosophical

[4] Convention on Biological Biodiversity. Proposed Biodiversity Indicators Relevant to the 2010 Target. Montreal: United Nations, UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/26; 2003. 31 p [5] Convention on Biological Biodiversity. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Decision Adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its Tenth Meeting, X/2. Nagoya: United Nations,

[6] European Commission. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Our Life Insurance, Our Natural Capital: An EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020.

[7] UNESCO. Biosphere Reserves. The Seville Strategy and the Statutory Framework of the

[8] UNESCO. A New Roadmap for the Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Programme and its World Network of Biosphere Reserves. MAB Strategy (2015-2025). Lima Action Plan (2016-2025). Lima Declaration. Paris: Man and the Biosphere Programme, United

[9] Sundseth K, Creed P.Natura 2000: Protecting Europe's Biodiversity. Luxembourg: European Commission, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities; 2008. 296 p [10] Orlikowska EH, Roberge JM, Blicharska M, Mikusinski G. Gaps in ecological research on the world's largest internationally coordinated network of protected areas: A review of Natura 2000. Biological Conservation. 2016;**200**:216-227. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016. 06.015

Brussels: European Commission, COM (2011) 244 final; 2011. 16 p.

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; 2017. 54 p

Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2005;**360**(1454):443-455

Regarding the capercaillie (*Tetrao urogallus*), this species has been the object of a conservation strategy parallel to the brown bear´s, since its presence is distributed in the same Biosphere Reserves as the plantigrade, reaching in some cases to share programs and actions of conservation (LIFE Ancares/Galicia and Ancares/Castilla y León) that were designed in a coordinated and complementary way. Nevertheless, capercaillie has had its own projects (LIFE + Urogallo Cantabrico). All these projects have pursued the improvement of the habitat for the capercaillie in the Cantabrian Mountains and the reintroduction of the species in areas where it had disappeared, and they have been supplemented by the aids for the maintenance of mountain livestock.

In addition to the previous habitats and species, other examples have been the subject of LIFE projects in the Spanish Atlantic region in response to its high variety of ecosystems and because of its extraordinary biodiversity. In this way, the dune ecosystems (2110, 2120, 2130\*) have also been the subject of LIFE projects (LIFE + ARCOS, LIFE Dunas Laida), while several taxa of interest for conservation have also been the main beneficiaries of LIFE projects, as is the case of *Galemys pyrenaicus* (LIFE Desmania), *Margaritifera margaritifera* (LIFE Margal Ulla), or *Woodwardia radicans* (LIFE Miera), among many others.
