In 2020, a serious poisoning incident occurred in the Cofete area, located in the Jandía Natural Park in Pájara (Fuerteventura). The poison caused the death of more than fifteen animals, including five vultures (guirre) (Neophron percnopterus majorensis), a species listed as ‘endangered’.
For this reason, the Department of Ecological Transition, Combating Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Gobierno de Canarias is developing a set of preventive actions to search for and detect the poison in the Cofete area. In particular, the activities are being carried out by the staff of the public company “Management and Territorial and Environmental Painification” (Gesplan) in coordination with the environmental agents of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura and the Nature Protection Service of the Guardia Civil (SEPRONA).
This operation is part of the Regional Department’s programme “Conservation activities of threatened bird species in the Eastern Islands of the Canary Archipelago – Mitigation of the impact of climate change”, which is being carried out by a team of nine people: seven people part of the “Eastern Islands Avifauna Team”, the monitor of the Anti-poison Dog Unit (UCA) of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project, who provides two dogs, and the regional coordinator of the Strategy for the eradication of the illegal use of poison in the non-urban environment of the Canary Islands.
These preventive actions to search for and locate the poison in the Cofete area will be carried out periodically in the Jandía Natural Park by the Gesplan Avifauna Eastern Islands Team and the UCA of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project, with the support of the relevant administrations and state security forces.
So far 130 hectares, divided into six plots, have been inspected and no evidence of poison use has been found during the operations.
These activities are part of Strategic Line 2.4 of the Strategy for the Eradication of the Illegal Use of Poison in the Non-Urban Environment of the Canary Islands, approved in March 2014, and are the first of a set of actions that will be implemented in other areas of Fuerteventura and the Island of Lanzarote over the next two years.
