The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, signed today, in Seville, a memorandum of understanding with the Minister of the Environment of the Junta de Andalucía, Fuensanta Coves; the Minister of Environment and Rural Development of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, José Luis Martínez, and the Minister of Industry, Energy and Environment of the Regional Government of Extremadura, José Luis Navarro, in order to develop a single coordinated programme of actions for the implementation of the Strategy for the Conservation of the Iberian Lynx. The Ministry enters into the next adhesion to this memorandum of Castilla y León and Madrid, given the presence of the lynx in these Autonomous Communities at the beginning of the 90s.

The signing of this agreement, which was attended by the Minister of the Environment, Territorial Planning and Regional Development of Portugal, Francisco Nunes Correia, takes place within the framework of the seminar “The Iberian Pact for the Lynx. An emergency plan for the conservation of the Iberian lynx”.

Aware of the serious situation of the species, the Ministry of the Environment carries out an important work of promotion and coordination between administrations, essential to achieve the application of homogeneous and coherent conservation policies throughout the former distribution area of the lynx. Currently, the species is extinct in Portugal and has been relegated to only two breeding populations in Spain, with numbers close to 150 specimens.

Since the second half of the last century, the Iberian lynx population has been in a situation of serious danger of extinction due to the negative impact of different factors, among which undoubtedly the loss of habitat, roadkills and, above all, the harmful effect of myxomatosis and viral haemorrhagic pneumonia on the rabbit. epizzotias that have greatly reduced the availability of food.

The number and intensity of actions undertaken for the conservation of the Iberian lynx and its habitat have multiplied as the status of the species has become more precarious. Among the initiatives carried out in the field, the Iberian Lynx Captive Reproduction Program stands out, which has proven its effectiveness at the Experimental Center for Captive Breeding of the Wild Olive Tree, in the Doñana National Park (Huelva), where 19 specimens have been born in three consecutive breeding seasons, of which 11 have survived.

Based on this experience, the Ministry of the Environment will invest 4 million euros in a new Ex Situ Breeding Center in Extremadura. The center will be located on the Las Correderas farm, in the town of Zarza de Granadilla in Cáceres, where the latest lynx sightings have taken place in Extremadura, and which was visited by the Minister on September 21. In total, the Ministry will invest more than 7 million euros during the period 2006 – 2010, in support of the conservation and recovery of the lynx.

The Iberian Lynx Captive Reproduction Program also extends to Portugal. On 31 August, Cristina Narbona signed a Cooperation Agreement on this programme in Lisbon with the Portuguese Minister of the Environment. By this agreement, Portugal was fully integrated into the Spanish captive breeding programme and the coordination of the necessary actions for its promotion in the territories of both states was established.

The Lynx Conservation Strategy, recently approved by the Lynx Working Group, updates the 1999 document and establishes for the first time quantified objectives for the recovery of the lynx in Spain, to get this species out of the “Critically Endangered Species” category.