Today it is World Environment Day and the theme this year is biodiversity. We are currently facing a severe crisis when it comes to biodiversity — the mass extinction of fauna and flora. We depend on biodiversity and nature in ways that we cannot always comprehend or appreciate, but our interconnectivity was truly demonstrated with the COVID-19 crisis. This year, with the pandemic slowing down entire economies and societies, the day when humanity's demand for ecological resources and services exceeds what earth can generate was pushed back one month — Earth Overshoot Day falls on 22 August 2020. This outcome shows that if we want a future where nature and wildlife thrives, critical change needs to happen. To achieve a more sustainable planet, we need to change — in the way economies and societies function and the way we behave as citizens and consumers. A healthy planet directly impacts our human health. Not only that, but biodiversity loss and nature destruction indirectly affect our livelihoods, income, and in some cases, can cause political conflict. 

What is essential now is that we fundamentally rethink our relationship with nature and how our everyday actions can have a positive or negative impact on the environment.

For World Environment Day, we also want to shed light on the importance of vultures. As nature's cleanup crew, they provide critical ecosystem services that benefit habitats, wildlife, people and the environment as a whole. 

How do vultures contribute to our environment?

It's that time of the year again when we release captive-bred Bearded Vulture chicks into the wild to reintroduce or reinforce the wild populations of the species! These efforts started in the 70s, to bring Bearded Vultures back to the Alps following their extinction in the region. Together with our partners, we successfully reintroduced the species to this mountain chain, in one of the most celebrated wildlife comeback stories! Today, we have reintroduction projects in several regions across the Alps, France and Spain. This year, a total of 25 Bearded Vulture chicks are alive and healthy within the Vulture Conservation Foundation's (VCF) Bearded Vulture Captive Breeding Network (EEP) that breed the species in captivity for conservation purposes. Some of the birds that hatched will remain in captivity to address the sex-ratio imbalances and also to secure important bloodlines in the captive stock. The VCF and its partners will release at least 20 young Bearded Vultures into the wild across six regions in Spain, France and the Alps to boost the local populations of the species. So far, we released five birds in Andalusia, two in Baronnies and two in Vercors (French Pre-Alps). More releases will take place in June and July in Switzerland, the Grands Causses, Maestrazgo and Andalusia.

Two Bearded Vulture siblings kick off the 2020 release season in Andalusia

Two captive-bred Bearded Vultures from Austrian and Czech zoos released in Baronnies

Two young captive-bred Bearded Vultures released in the Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors in the French pre-Alps

You can stay tuned with the releases by tracking #BeardedVultureReleaseSeason on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram!

This year, the historic Vultures Back To LIFE is reintroducing Cinereous Vultures in a new release site in Bulgaria! In mid-May, the project team released five Cinereous Vultures in the Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park for the first time in this region. The five birds spent the last seven months at the acclimatization aviary of the Nature Park. Ahead of their release, the team equipped the birds with GPS transmitters, which gather insightful information about the birds and their movements and helps inform more accurate conservation measures.

Vultures back to LIFE aims to reintroduce the Cinereous Vulture to Bulgaria and establish a nesting population of the species. These conservation efforts are significant, as there is only one small breeding colony in Greece, remaining across the entire Balkan Penninsula, and this project will help boost the status of the species in the region. Another goal of the project is to restore the connections between the sub-populations of this species in Greece, Crimea, the Alps and the Iberian Peninsula.

The first Cinereous Vultures releases at Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park in Bulgaria

Over 900 migratory Egyptian Vultures observed in Turkey during one month

Will Egyptian Vultures breed in Sardinia again?

Watch two newly hatched Egyptian Vulture siblings in the wild in Israel

Electrocuted in Turkey: Vultures and other soaring birds under threat

How are Egyptian Vultures perceived?

Introducing a schematic sampling protocol for raptor biomonitoring to harmonize procedures across Europe

Birdski: mitigating threats in ski areas to protect Bearded Vultures in the French Alps

Research review: New study estimates the Bearded Vulture population in the Pyrenees at around 1,000 individuals

Two Bearded Vulture siblings kick off the 2020 release season in Andalusia

Food shortage will not be a problem this summer for our Bearded Vulture breeding centres

How many Bearded Vultures hatched this breeding season in captivity?

Bearded Vulture vagrancy: leaving the mountains to explore the North of France

Watch: Guadalentín — the centre that breeds the most Bearded Vultures

Electrocuted in Turkey: Vultures and other soaring birds under threat

A Bearded Vulture cycling jersey combines conservation and sustainability!

Introducing a schematic sampling protocol for raptor biomonitoring to harmonize procedures across Europe