First International Small Wild Cat Conservation Summit

From September 11th to the 14th, the “First International Small Wild Cat Conservation Summit” was held in Port Lympne (United Kingdom), in which specialists in different species of small wild cats from 14 countries of the world shared experiences, discussed working strategies, and established a set of common conservation objectives for this group of species.

As a follow-up to the meeting, the Small Wild Cat Network was founded, whose main function is the establishment of a joint work environment that allows to efficiently address the conservation objectives agreed upon by this group of specialists.

The attendees, representing Chile, Peru, Brazil, the United States, Scotland, England, Germany, France, Spain, Uganda, Iran, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, represent 26 species of small wild cats from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.

The representatives of the Life+IBERLINCE project reviewed the species conservation works developed by the Regional Government of Andalusia since 2001, detailing the different lines of work that allowed for the Iberian lynx’s threat category to pass from "critical danger” of extinction to "endangered". In addition, to facilitate the success of conservation projects that are now taking their first steps, they offered the remaining attendees access to the enormous amount of information generated over the years.