Natura 2000 Award - Adaptation of Eleonora's falcon to climate change

Greece is home to more than 80% of the global Eleonora's falcon breeding population. Eleonora’s falcon is a specialised, migratory bird of prey that is particularly susceptible to climate change as it is highly dependent on the quality of breeding and foraging habitats, as well as on the availability of food sources.

The EU LIFE-funded ElClimA project aimed to facilitate Eleonora's Falcon adaptation to climate change by implementing a range of actions focusing on the improvement of its breeding performance and the improvement of the species’ conservation status at its foraging areas.

LIFE ElClimA targeted the bird’s habitats on seven Greek Natura 2000 sites that host 3 150 breeding pairs. The project partners, led by the University of Patras, ran the largest-ever rat eradication operation in Greece. As a result, 700 hectares of breeding habitats are now free from rat predation, preventing the loss of up to 29% of eggs and chicks.

The project addressed the issue of rising temperatures on egg thermoregulation by installing more than 1 000 artificial nests. To ensure a sufficient food source from migrating passerine birds, the project partners purchased land and planted fruit trees, bushes and cereals for the passerines to feed on. This novel approach increased the overall stopover time of the migrating birds by around 5% in comparison to similar habitats, giving the falcon a more reliable food source.

In all, the project has led to a 42% increase in the breeding success of Eleonora's falcon in the project area, as well as leading to an improvement for local ecosystems and other important species.

To ensure that the project’s results can also help other Eleonora’s falcon populations adapt to climate change, the project team shared up-to-date information and lessons learned in a “Good Practice Guide” and shared it with other organisations in the Mediterranean region and Africa.

On 8 and 9 July 2023, the University of Patras, together with their project partner, the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS), organised a local event to celebrate winning the Natura 2000 Award’s 2022 edition in the Conservation on land category. The event highlighted the success of the initiative and was held at the “Skyros: Oros (GR2420006)” Natura 2000 site, on the island of Skyros, Greece. The island is home to 80% of the endangered Eleonora’s falcon population worldwide, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The mitigation of this threat has been one of the main achievements of this winning initiative funded by the EU LIFE programme (LIFE Nature project “Conservation measures to assist the adaptation of Falco eleonorae to climate change” . 

The two-day event, which was open to the public, kicked off with a round table discussion on biodiversity conservation measures on Skyros. In the afternoon, the discussion was followed by a children’s workshop on Eleonora’s falcon and Aegean nature in general, organised by the Hellenic Ornithological Society’s Environmental Education Team. The following day, participants had the opportunity to observe the species more closely during a boat trip to its breeding colonies. Anna Cheilari, from the Nature Conservation Unit of Directorate General for the Environment, represented the European Commission at the event.