Fauna passage inaugurated on the A-483 in Almonte (Huelva)

Today, the Minister of Environment and Territory Planning, José Fiscal, attended the inauguration of a new low passage for fauna on the A-483, in the Almonte municipality, in the vicinity of the Doñana Natural Park, adding to the various actions carried out in this area to reduce the risk of wildlife being run over, especially the Iberian lynx.

This new step, which meant an investment of just over 560,000 euros, is located at kilometre 20.8 of the A-483 motorway, connecting the town of Almonte with the village of El Rocío. It entails the construction of a passage tunnel for lynxes under the motorway, which will allow for the permeability of the territory while preventing animals from crossing the road.

José Fiscal stressed that "this type of action is essential for the connectivity of Iberian lynx populations." For this purpose, the Life+Iberlince Project for the Recovery of the Historical Distribution of the Iberian Lynx contemplates the development of actions to minimize the risks of collisions and accidents, facilitating and re-establishing connectivity between populations in the region and future expansion areas.

The main objective of this Life program is the creation of new populations of the species through the selection of well-preserved areas for reintroduction in Portugal, as well as in the autonomous communities of Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia and Andalusia, in order to ensure the feline’s presence in these areas once again. In this respect, Fiscal stressed that "2016 and 2017 entailed a considerable advance toward the Life+Iberlince goals, and this is shown by the still tentative data from the 2017 census". For the time being, having reviewed 80% of the data, 382 specimens have been accounted for in Andalusia. Last year’s entire census showed that the Iberian lynx population in the region had reached 397 specimens.

On its behalf, the Regional Government’s general director of Infrastructures, Jesus Huertas, explained that the Ministry of Housing and Development is participating as an associate beneficiary of the Iberlince program, "whereby we accept the responsibility of permeabilizing roads and motorways in lynx territories in order to reduce collision by 30% over the total population", said Huertas, who added that said program has a budget of 1.2 million euros.