ALGAKON, the company selected for the campaign, is starting work on awareness-raising and information dissemination to the local population and schools within action E7 of the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project. In the framework of this action, external assistance was planned to be contracted to provide talks to primary and secondary schools, as well as to provide guided visits to urban centres, for both school students as well as the local population, to increase awareness about the lesser kestrel..
This awareness-raising campaign will take place in each of the 19 urban SPAs listed in Extremadura for the presence of important colonies of lesser kestrels. Puebla de Alcocer will also be visited because, even though it is not within the network of urban SPAs, there is an important colony of lesser kestrel in the town and it lies within the SPA-SAC Orellana Reservoir and Sierra de Pela. 60 talks in primary and secondary schools are planned and 43 guided visits. In each urban SPA there will be at least two guided visits, of those one directed at school students and the other for the general population, during which existing colonies will be observed using telescopes and binoculars.
The work by Algakón starts in December with the presentation of realistic fibre glass models of lesser kestrels, specifically a male, a female and an incubating female. These models will be used during the talks that are planned to start in April, coinciding with the presence of lesser kestrels in Extremadura.
