2 - To undertake research on wild populations and to determine suitable areas for protection and
suitable ones as release sites.
Ensuring the restoration of a sustainable wild houbara population is the core issue of the ECWP houbara
bustard propagation programme. So, field studies were recognized from beginning of the project as a
critical element for the success of the project. Indeed, very little is known about the ecology and biology
of the African species of houbara bustards and very little information was also available on the situation
of wild populations in eastern Morocco at the creation of the project in 1995.