130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Action Description Impact
Planning and
monitoring
International Species Action Plan in place and
national plans exist in some countries (Czech
Republic, Hungary, and Serbia).
Medium
Site/area
protection
Site/area
management
Habitat and
natural process
restoration
Systematic monitoring carried out in a number of
countries.
There are 134 IBAs identified for Saker falcon, of
which 53% are fully designated as SPAs or other
protected areas and 13% are not protected.
Power line mitigation.
Nest protection.
Prey population management (Suslik
translocation).
Medium
Medium
High
Historically high
Medium
Species recovery Provision of artificial nests. High
Ex-situ
conservation
Education and
awareness
Captive breeding.
Awareness raising campaigns towards
gamekeepers.
Low
High
Legislation Protected by law in all countries. Medium
Table 4. Conservation actions in place for Saker falcon [9] .
Habitat loss remains an important problem
today [3, 9] and nest robbing, which is no longer a
significant problem in most of central Europe,
may still be a considerable threat in Ukraine and
eastern Europe [40] . New threats have also come
about, including electrocution [3, 30] . It is likely that
nest site availability limits Saker falcon populations
[41] , as a result of removal of trees in agricultural
areas [3, 9] . Illegal poisoning is another critical
threat, as it appears that use of poison bait is
increasing in the Carpathian Basin [3, 4] .
Drivers of recovery
Conservation measures mostly include nest
protection, provision of artificial nests, insulating
power lines, habitat management (e.g. through
agri-environment schemes), population
management of key prey species, and education
campaigns [27, 30, 33, 38, 42] .
The Saker falcon has shown evidence of recovery
in the Carpathian Basin, as a direct result of active
conservation effort [27, 30, 33, 42] . With effective protection
of the species and appropriate management of its
habitats, there is scope for further recovery and
recolonisation in other parts of Europe [43] .
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