Thanks to the important support of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and its dependent entities: Biodiversity Foundation and Autonomous National Parks Agency, the Brown Bear Foundation (FOP) can carry out initiatives ranging from the field of applied research, the execution of European LIFE projects or awareness campaigns, among other actions.
- In the field of applied conservation research, which is one of the basic lines of the Strategy for the conservation of the brown bear in the Cantabrian Mountains (approved in 1999 and updated in 2019), the FOP receives funding from MITECO through grants for third sector entities or non-governmental organizations that carry out activities of general interest considered to be of social interest in the field of scientific and technical research of an environmental nature. The projects that have been developed in the last call can be consulted in the FOP’s URSUS Program.
FOP technician collecting genetic samples
- The Biodiversity Foundation (FB) has supported various LIFE projects coordinated by FOP, approved and co-financed by the European Union, such as the LIFE Bears with Future project, which was carried out between October 2020 and March 2025, and currently the LIFE Human Bear Coex project “Prevention and mitigation of conflicts in villages and their surroundings to favour coexistence between humans and bears in the higher bear density municipalities of the Cantabrian Mountains (Spain)”.
In addition, the FOP has developed projects that have been selected in the FB grant lines. Specifically, within the Call for grants from the Biodiversity Foundation FSP, under a competitive regime, for the evaluation of Spanish terrestrial biodiversity 2020 (framed in the Terrestrial Biodiversity line of action of the 2020 Action Plan of the Biodiversity Foundation). The last one ended in May 2022: «Establishment of an early warning system to detect brown bear conservation problems caused by leisure and sporting activities in the Montaña Palentina Natural Park (Palencia), the Alt Pirineu Natural Park and the Aigüestortes and Estany de Sant Maurici National Park (Lleida).»
LIFE Bears with a Future Project: Follow-up visit to the forest nursery in La Mata, Asturias
- The National Parks Autonomous Agency (OAPN) and FOP-Brown Bear Foundation work together since 2021 to improve knowloedge and awareness about the brown bear and other species that are present in the National Parks that host a part of its population. Within 2025 an information campaign has been carried out aimed at the information and visitor reception centres of the Picos de Europa National Park (in the Cantabrian Mountains) and in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park (in the Pyrenees mountain range), as well as tourist establishments located within the Parks and in their surrounding areas of influence. In addition, information and awareness‑raising activities have been carried out for hikers directly along the routes in both territories, intended to prevent incidents with bears.
Information and awareness‑raising campaign in the Picos de Europa National Park.