Hello, I am Ana Almeida, Senior Marine Conservation Officer

at the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA), the BirdLife partner in Portugal.

In 2022, we won the Natura 2000 Award in the Marine category

with the MedAves Pesca initiative, Fishermen and Seabirds: Allies of the Sea.

I would encourage anyone working in nature conservation

to apply for this Award.

Not only because of the Award itself, but also because of the application process,

which helps increase the visibility of your work and enables it to reach a wider audience.

For SPEA, this Award was extremely important as it helped our work gain recognition

from government authorities in both the fisheries and environmental sectors.

As a result, we were invited to contribute to the development

of the future Action Plan for the minimisation of bycatch on sensitive species,

including seabirds, cetaceans and turtles.