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dimension approach with solid ecology, to bring both science
and management experience to bear on the issues of large
carnivore conservation, and to transfer this expertise into the
policy arena at European level.
In 2013 we updated the information on number,
distribution, trends and status of the European bear, wolf, lynx
and wolverine populations, and produced new detailed
distribution maps by country and by population, more details
here. We held our annual group meeting in Italy in March 2013,
and we approved a Manifesto for large carnivore conservation
in Europe. This is a manifesto of how the LCIE think large
carnivore conservation could look in a European context. It is
intended to inspire, by outlining some long term objectives and
stretch goals which will often go beyond the minimum
standards required by international legal instruments. It states
some principles and recommendations of the measures
needed to achieve these objectives. Perhaps most importantly
it is intended to explore in greater detail the potential
relationship between people and large carnivores in the
landscapes that they share.
We continued our fruitful close collaboration with the
European Commission and we are now engaged on three key
tasks to be completed by the end of 2014:
a) to design and implement an EU-wide communication strategy
on large carnivores that will include website material, press
articles in all major EU languages, support to the Commission
on communicating a new EU platform on carnivore
conservation.
b) to produce a list of the most important conservation actions
to be implemented in each of the EU carnivore populations (10
lynx populations, 10 for wolves, 10 for bears and one for
wolverines),
c) design and implement four pilot conservation actions (one for
each species) at the level of transboundary populations: these
pilot actions will demonstrate the feasibility of transboundary
collaboration in Iberia, the Alps, Fennoscandia and the
Carpathian mountains.
As part of our engagement with the European Commission, in
December 2013, we supported the Commission in managing
the second European Stakeholder meeting on humancarnivore
coexistence.
Lobaria pulmonaria. © C. Scheidegger
Global Fungal Red List website. A project on population biology
and conservation measures of the model lichen species Lobaria
pulmonaria in Tanzania has been initiated, and is being
supported by a Rufford Foundation Small Grant.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Mohammad bin
Zayed Species Conservation Fund and the Rufford Foundation.
Christoph Scheidegger and Olga Nadyeina
Co-chairs, Lichen Specialist Group
Macaronesian Island Plants Specialist Group
Our main objective is to make conservation biology tools widely
available; encouraging good diagnostic studies to correctly
catalogue Endangered species (including information on
taxonomy), and promoting recovery actions through Recovery
Plans for macaronesian plants. In this sense, some members of
the Specialist Group have been implementing several ways of
diffusing this knowledge; through contributing to Symposia;
preparing Red List assessments (focusing on Habitats Directive
species) and assisting the administration to encourage the
monitoring of plant species.
Sideritis marmoreal – an endemic of the island of La Gomera (Canary
Islands). © Ricardo Mesa
Luigi Boitani
Chair, Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe
Lichen Specialist Group
The mission of the Lichen Specialist Group is to promote the
study of lichen diversity, population dynamics and conservation
genetics, in order to evaluate the conservation status of lichen
species according to IUCN Red List criteria. We have
established a group of 23 members, who are specialists in
either regional floras (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North and
South America), or in ecological and taxonomic groups of
lichens (like tropical lichens, arid lichens in steppe ecosystems,
European deciduous forest lichens, Caucasian lichens, or
lichens of the family Parmeliaceae).
In 2013, we contributed to the Global Fungal Red List
Initiative, which was kindly supported by IUCN and the
Mohammad bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. We have
started IUCN Red List assessments for a considerable number
of lichen species from various parts of the world, using the
Specialist Groups, Task Forces and Red List Authorities
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