LIFE FALKON Closing Conference – AGENDA

LIFE FALKON CLOSING CONFERENCE – THE AGENDA

International Meeting on the research lines and conservation efforts on Lesser Kestrel in the Mediterranean

Lemnos Island. Greece 12-14 October 2023

 

 

DAY 0 – Wednesday 11 OCTOBER

NOTE: A mini-van of the Conference Staff will be available from the Airport to Myrina as well as from the port for those coming by boat

18:30 – 20:00 Early arrivals and registrations @ Hotel Grand Patelli 

20:00 Free night 

 

DAY 1 – Thursday 12 OCTOBER

9:00-10:00 Arrival of late participants and registration.

NOTE: A mini-van of the Conference Staff will be available from the Airport to Myrina

10:00 Opening of the conference 

• Michelangelo Morganti (Project Manager of LIFE FALKON, CNR-IRSA, Italy)

• Panos Kordopatis (Conservation Manager, Hellenic Ornithological Society, Greece)

 

10:15 Welcome speech about Lemnos Island environment 

• George Dimitropoulos (Med.In.A) – Lemnos: an agricultural landscape of high cultural and ecological value.

 

SESSION 1: The LIFE FALKON project: outline, actions, main results and future perspectives

10:30 Michelangelo Morganti (CNR-IRSA, Italy) – The LIFE FALKON background and objectives.

11:00 Diego Rubolini (Univ. of Milan, Italy) – Genetic, genomic and movement connectivity among worldwide populations of Lesser kestrels.

11:30 Coffee Break.

12:00 Jacopo G. Cecere (ISPRA, Italy), and Nikos Tsiopelas (HOS, Greece) –  The conservation actions of LIFE FALKON.

12:30 Nikos Tsiopelas or Roula Trigou, (HOS, Greece) – LIFE FALKON among students, citizens and stakeholders.

13:00 Alessia Marzotto (ALDA, France/Italy) – Communication activities of LIFE FALKON .

 

13:30 Lunch Break (light standing buffet at the conference venue).

 

 

SESSION 2: Conservation of Lesser kestrel and its environment

 

14:30 Opening of the afternoon session

Official Greetings from NECCA Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency of the Ministry of Environment of Greece

Eleni Galinou (NECCA)

 

14:40 Lectio Magistralis by Inês Catry (CiBIO, Portugal).

Long-term persistence of the Lesser kestrel: challenges and opportunities for conservation.

Inês Catry is a researcher at BIOPOLIS-CIBIO. Over the last 24 years, she has monitored the Lesser kestrel population in Portugal, aiming at unveiling the impacts of agricultural practices and climate change on the species. She also investigates the effectiveness of conservation actions implemented to halt the species declines, highlighting the need for evidence-based conservation to guarantee the long-term persistence of the Lesser kestrel. 

15:40 Pepe Antolín (DEMA, Spain) – Traditional buildings vs. Modern buildings / Keys to reversing factors that negatively affect the species.

16:10 Miltos Gletsos (HSPN, Greece), Kostas Vlachopoulos, (Univ. of Thessaly, Greece) – Conservation Actions of the LIFE for Lesser kestrel (LIFE19 NAT/BG/001017).

16:50 Poster session, 10 min talks and Q&A by:

• Stliyana Yaneva (Green Balkans, Bulgaria) – Occupation Rates of artificial nest boxes by Lesser kestrel in SPA ‘Sakar’.
• Yordanka Vasileva (Green Balkans, Bulgaria) – A combined structure for ex-situ Breeding, adaptation and release of Lesser kestrels in the wildlife rehabilitation and breeding centre of Green Balkans.

17:10 General discussion

17:45 End of the session and GROUP PHOTO with all the participants!

 

18:00-20:15 Free time

20:15 Welcome drink with the projection of ‘LIFE ON THE MOVE’, the LIFE FALKON documentary by Aurélien Prudor (15 min), @Grand Hotel Patelli.

20:30 SOCIAL DINNER OFFERED BY FALKON, @Grand Hotel Patelli.

 

 

DAY 2 – Friday 13 OCTOBER

 

SESSION 3: Research updates on Lesser kestrel

9:30 Lectio Magistralis  by  Javier Bustamante (Doñana Biological Station/CSIC, Spain)

How do Lesser kestrels move?

Javier Bustamante is a senior researcher at the Doñana Biological Station (EBD) affiliated with the Spanish National Council of Scientific Research (CSIC), specialising in ornithology, particularly raptors. His research interests range from penguins in Antarctica, and species distribution models in South America, to remote sensing for wetland conservation. For over 35 years, he has studied Lesser kestrels in Andalusia, Spain, covering aspects like post-fledging dependence, phenology, population dynamics, prey/habitat selection, and movement ecology.

10:30 Gaia Bazzi (ISPRA, Italy) –  Continental trend of an iconic raptor driven by Sahelian drought and farmland change over the last century.

11:00  Maurizio Sarà, (Univ. of Palermo, Italy) – Long-term persistence of Lesser kestrel in Sicily.

11:30 Coffee Break

12:00 Gradimir Gradev (Green Balkans, Bulgaria). 10 years of recovering the Lesser kestrel as a breeder in Bulgaria.

12:30 Giacomo Assandri (Univ. of Turin, Italy) – Intercontinental-scale assessment of collision risk with onshore wind power plants for a migratory raptor through its annual life cycle.

13:00 Alejandro Corregidor- Castro (Univ. of Padua/CNR-IRSA) – Effects of increasing temperatures on reproduction in the Lesser kestrel and their conservation implications.

13:30 Lunch Break (light standing buffet at the conference venue)

14:30 Samuele Ramellini (Univ. of Milan, Italy) – Roaming the Sahel: ecological gradients affect non-breeding movement patterns of the Lesser kestrel.

15:00 Klea Duro (AOS, Albania) – Albania, an important roosting site for the Lesser Kestrel

15:30 João Gameiro (CiBIO, Portugal) – Species interactions in recently established mixed-colonies.

16:00 Alessandro Berlusconi (CNR-IRSA, Italy) – A multi-scale analysis of intra-guild coexistence among new-established sympatric breeding falcons.

16:30 Poster session (10 min talks) by:

• Svetla Dalakchieva (Green Balkans, Bulgaria) – The journey of Ema, the female Lesser kestrel. 
• Goran Topić, Biljana Topić (Ornithological Society ‘Our Birds’, Bosnia) – First evidence of breeding Lesser kestrel in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

16:50 Roundtable : Strengthening the network of people working on the Lesser kestrel in the Mediterranean, update of the EU Action Plan for the species. 

18:00 End of the scientific sessions.

20:00 Free night out in Myrina downtown.

 

 

DAY 3 – Saturday 14 OCTOBER

FIELD TRIP (8:30 to app. 14:30)

08:30 Departure by bus from the @Hotel Grand Patelli

(Note: participants taking the 14:25 flight from Lemnos are kindly asked to check out before. Direct drop-off from the lunch venue to the airport will be available by the organisers.)

09:00 Field Trip to ‘Romanos’ village, which is an intervention site of LIFE FALKON and one of the biggest Lesser Kestrel colonies on the island.

10:00 Nature excursion & Birdwatching at Keros – Alyki area in the east coast of Lemnos, part of the Natura 2000 SPA area (GR4110006)

 

12:30 Lunch with traditional dishes at the farm ‘MANTRA TIS ATHINAS’

https://www.facebook.com/mantratisathinas 

14:30 Back at the Hotel

 

 

 

8 June 2023