April 2025 Conservation Snapshot

Sendaviva - Natural Park of Navarra, located in the North of Spain, is one of the newest EAZA Members – joining in 2023 as Temporary Member and achieving Full Member status in 2024.

Sendaviva participates in short-, medium-, and long-term conservation projects and believes that every contribution, whether small or large, is not only important, but often essential for species conservation. Sendaviva is a strong proponent of the One Plan Approach for species conservation, which means that management strategies and conservation actions are developed by all parties responsible for all populations of a species, inside or outside their range. In choosing conservation projects to support, Sendaviva focuses on actions that are relevant and impactful, for instance offering controlled environments that assist researchers in developing and testing techniques for application in the field.

As an example of a short-term project, a collaboration with AUZIKER requested them to collect Iberian wolf faeces. AUZIKER creates training kits for canine units and in this case the goal was to extract volatile compounds found in these wolf faeces, in order to manufacture a product that would help forest rangers train dogs to differentiate wolf tracks from dog tracks in the field. This helps to understand the distribution of Iberian wolves and their movements at a time of expansion of the species and when managing conflicts between wolves and livestock farmers is important.

In terms of long-term projects, Sendaviva is also a key partner in the SEMICE project, collaborating with the Institute of Biodiversity and Environment of Universidad de Navarra and the Granollers Museum. This project monitors wild, native small mammals in Spain, studying population dynamics and identifying factors that affect fluctuations, ultimately contributing to the preservation of biodiversity.