The Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors (PNR du Vercors) focuses on protecting and enhancing the natural, cultural and human heritage via an innovative planning and economic, social, cultural and landscaping policy applied within the framework of a project designed by all local partners.

Within this context, a Bearded Vulture reintroduction project was conducted in the Vercors in 2010, with 3 objectives:

• Consolidating the population present in the Alps by releasing other individuals.
• Extending the species’ current area of distribution further west and by targeting environments in medium mountain ranges favorable to their settlement.
• Opening a corridor between the Alps and Pyrenees, crucial to the survival of the species.

With this project, the Parc du Vercors was able to demonstrate:

• Its political determination to restore biodiversity, to enhance socio-economic stakes, to raise awareness among local inhabitants and to getbuy-in from local partners.
• Its knowhow and expertise acquired during past reintroduction programs.
  Its ability to levy the required funding as well as human and technical resources to conduct a reintroduction operation.
• Its legitimacy as leader of this type of territorial program: to rally the territory, its inhabitants and partners around the project and thus design a showcase to rehabilitate biodiversity in the Alps.

Buoyed by its experience, the Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors is in charge of the « Alps » site within the framework of LIFE GYPCONNECT and of the local implementation of the project’s action plan and more specifically in the park.

For more information: : http://www.parc-du-vercors.fr/