On Thursday, March 6, the fourth meeting of the Scientific Committee of the LIFE project ‘Bears with Future’ was held in Villablino (León). The project is approaching its conclusion on March 31. Participating in this evaluation meeting were researchers Pedro Álvarez-Álvarez from the University of Oviedo, Emilio R. Díaz and María J. Lombardero from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Fernando Castedo from the University of León, and the technical team from the Brown Bear Foundation (FOP).
The meeting served to shape the main conclusions of the project, highlight the milestones achieved, and extract the lessons learned. A final document was drafted with key guidelines for valuing traditional chestnut groves, focusing both on profitable nut production and the conservation of these biodiversity-rich ecosystems, always emphasizing the importance of synergy between science and conservation in all the studies.
In addition, the team visited one of the chestnut groves included in the pilot project to assess its current condition and exchange opinions on the success of the treatments carried out. Updated scientific information and expert advice from researchers remain fundamental to the design, implementation, and monitoring of all actions carried out by FOP across all our projects.
The LIFE ‘Bears with a Future’ project is coordinated by FOP and supported by Fundación Biodiversidad, under Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), and Fundación Patrimonio Natural of the Regional Government of Castile and León. The regional administrations of Castile and León and the Principality of Asturias also collaborate in the project, alongside Fundación Tierra Pura.
