LIFE VIDALIA receives networking visit from LIFE medCLIFFS

April 24, 2023

LIFE VIDALIA, coordinated by the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change, recently received two members of the team of the LIFE medCLIFFS project in a networking visit that allowed to show the Catalan colleagues three of the four areas of intervention of LIFE VIDALIA on Faial, as well as the sharing of knowledge acquired and the techniques applied during almost five years of interventions for the conservation of the endemic coastal flora of the Azores.

The networking visit lasted one day, starting in the morning with a visit to the Caldeirão do Cabeço Verde to present the results, in a vertical zone, of the specialized work at altitude using ropes. It was followed by a visit to the Port of Castelo Branco intervention area and, finally, to Monte da Guia.

LIFE medCLIFFS is a recent project that aims to maintain the floristic diversity of Mediterranean coastal cliffs, ensuring their conservation and preventing losing biodiversity. The control of invasive flora in coastal areas is therefore essential to the success of this project, something it has in common with the Azorean project that received its team on the island of Faial.

During the visit, particular importance was given to sites with steeper slopes, with the Caldeirão do Cabeço Verde intervention area having, therefore, greater emphasis. At this location, a history of the works carried out was made, transmitting the methods used for the effective control of invasive alien species in the intervened wall, as well as the strategies applied for the removal and transport of waste resulting from the intervention to the appropriate locations.

The meeting between members of the teams from the two projects served, among other things, to promote networking with the transfer of methodologies and successful solutions during the project's lifetime, specifically in the eradication and control of invasive species in cliffs. It is also worth mentioning that, like most of the areas of intervention of LIFE VIDALIA, those of LIFE medCLIFFS also integrate the Natura 2000 Network. 

The networking, the replicability and transferability of the methodologies and strategies used in the conservation actions of the LIFE VIDALIA project are obligations to be carried out during the last year of the project and the five years after its end so that other projects financed by the LIFE Programme can benefit from the acquired technical knowledge. This networking visit represents, therefore, another objective achieved by the LIFE VIDALIA team.

Find out more about this project at: www.lifevidalia.eu/en/.