Life+IBERLINCE releases three copies of Iberian lynx in Castilla-La Mancha

The Minister of Environment and Land Planning of the Junta de Andalucía, José Fiscal, has participated in the releasing ceremony of three Iberian lynx specimens at El Sotillo de Abajo farm in Quinto de Luciañez, in the municipality of Las Ventas con Peña Aguilera (Toledo), one of the reintroduction areas of Los Montes de Toledo selected by the Life+IBERLINCE program. The president of Castilla la Mancha, Emiliano García-Page and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment of the La Mancha community, Francisco Martínez, also attended the act to free the felines.

The lynx reintroduced to the natural environment on this occasion are Narnia, Nenúfar and Nervio and come from the Center of Captive Breeding of La Granadilla, located in Zarza de Granadilla (Cáceres). José Fiscal highlighted the effort of the Andalusian Government to avoid the disappearance of the species, first in this Autonomous Community and later in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, through the Life+IBERLINCE project, coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Management of the Territory as a beneficiary partner, and which covers, from 2011 until the end of 2017, the objective of recovering the historical distribution of Iberian lynx in Spain and Portugal. This initiative is funded by the Junta de Andalucía and the European Union, along with 22 partners from Spain and Portugal.

The latest census data confirm the positive evolution of feline populations that have gone from 94 in 2002 with presence only in Andalusia, to 483 in 2016 in the Peninsula. In 2017, the monitoring committee of the Life+IBERLINCE project has agreed to release 40 Iberian lynxes, male and female, in the reintroduction zones of the Iberian Peninsula with the aim of reinforcing populations in all these areas and following Strengthening the genetic heritage of the species.

Economic impact and environmental benefits

According to the director, "the participation of farms like this one in the project confers to its products and uses an environmental quality mark". Fiscal has abounded in the matter and has affirmed that "protecting the Iberian lynx, the species of feline more threatened of the planet, is not only saved from the extinction to a species, but that an ecosystem is conserved - the Mediterranean mount - and are generated Direct and indirect positive economic impacts ". The preservation of the Iberian lynx generates about 100 fixed jobs and about 60,000 casual wages.

Also, Fiscal recalled that the work of the Regional Government of Andalusia in this field has also been endorsed by the various awards that have received the conservation of the Iberian lynx, both the previous programs developed only in the Andalusian Autonomous Community and the current project in which the area of action is expanded. Among them is the Natura 2000 Network award to Life+IBERLINCE last year or the current EU award for the project for the Conservation and Reintroduction of the Iberian Lynx in Andalusia (2006-2011) as one of the five best ever Executed in Europe in the 25 years of existence of LIFE, within the category of Nature and Biodiversity.

Source: www.juntadeandalucia.es