Every year, the Annual Report of the Winter Census of Aquatic Birds is elaborated, coordinately and at an international scale, with the objective of describing the wintering of these birds and their geographical distribution in the Region of Murcia. To make it possible, dozens of voluntary census takers spend, on average, 100.000 hours watching the 52 wetlands of the Region, which include the Wetland of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) of Mar Menor. For this last census and, acting within the framework of the LIFE- Salinas project, numerous volunteers collaborated in the census of Salinas de San Pedro del Pinatar and the surrounding wetlands. These data are truly significant in order to know the value of each of the wetlands for wintering waterfowl. In Spain, the census is coordinated by SEO/BirdLife and by Wetlands International at the international scale.
The volunteer actions have been developed within the framework of the LIFE Project: “Conservación de hábitats y aves acuáticas in the SCI and SPA ES0000175 Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar”, which is funded by the LIFE instrument of the European Union, coordinated by Salinera Española and, whose beneficiary partners are: ANSE, the General Environment Direction of the Region of Murcia, the Council of San Pedro del Pinatar, the University of Murcia and Mae d´agua, Lda. The LIFE-Salinas actions that are carried out by ANSE are supported by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition through the Biodiversity Foundation.