"We need to keep working. The population growth has been spectacular; we ourselves are surprised by the results, but the lynx continues to be in danger and is threatened," said Javier Salcedo, with only a few months left until the end of LIFE Lynx Connect, the fourth Iberian lynx conservation program funded by the European Union (EU).

Javier Salcedo was speaking to Lusa in Seville, Spain, at the start of the International Iberian Lynx Congress, which aims to take stock and analyse the challenges of the Iberian lynx recovery and conservation programs, now considered an international case of reference and success.

The number of lynx in the Iberian Peninsula increased by 19% in 2024, reaching 2,401 animals, according to the annual census conducted by the Spanish and Portuguese entities involved in the species recovery project, revealed in May.

The 2024 census identified 1,557 adult lynxes, of which 470 are breeding females, 64 more than in 2023.

Those responsible for and scientists of the LIFE LynxConnect project, dedicated to the recovery of the Iberian lynx, which was on the verge of extinction at the beginning of this century, believe that to achieve a "favourable conservation status" it will be necessary to reach between 4,500 and 6,000 individuals, with at least 1,100 breeding females.

Funding

Conservation projects for the Iberian lynx, primarily funded by European LIFE programs, have been ongoing for over 20 years, and the total number of animals has increased from less than 100 in 2002 to over 2,400 in 2024.

Last year, the species was reclassified from "endangered" to "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Javier Salcedo emphasised today that "vulnerable" remains a classification within the threatened and endangered categories, and that "despite the very positive news, much remains to be done," and continued work is needed to remove the Iberian lynx from this classification.

The first LIFE project for the Iberian lynx began in 2002, and the current project uses the word "connect" as a reference, aiming to promote connections between existing populations in various areas of the Iberian Peninsula in order to "create a genetically and demographically functional meta-population."

For Javier Salcedo, the next LIFE project – currently under evaluation by the European Union – should be guided by the word "resilience."

"Climate resilience, anthropogenic resilience [in the face of human activity], territorial resilience, and genetic resilience," said Javier Salcedo, who explained that, in addition to the need to increase the total jaguar population, it is necessary to address other challenges, such as the low genetic diversity, a "silent threat" that makes the species very vulnerable to diseases, for example.

"Of all the species whose genome is known, the lynx is the one with the least genetic diversity," and despite the work done in recent years, "genetic diversity remains the same or lower than at the beginning," he emphasized.

Challenges

Among other challenges for the future, Javier Salcedo cited the need to understand why 60% of lynxes prefer to live in "humanized" territories, with greater threats, and outside protected areas such as those of the Natura 2000 network.

Javier Salcedo highlighted the high mortality rate of animals due to unnatural causes, such as roadkill or illegal hunting.

Even so, in statements to Lusa and at the opening session of the Seville congress, he repeatedly insisted that the success of the Iberian lynx's recovery was only possible through an understanding between various public administrations (Spanish regional governments and between Portugal and Spain) to develop an integrated and common strategy, and also with the involvement in a single project and with a single objective of civil society and sectors that are often at odds, such as hunting associations, environmentalists, farmers, and private landowners and farm owners.

The Iberian lynx recovery and conservation project initially involved captive breeding, with the first animals released into the wild in 2011.

Since then, and until 2014, 403 animals born in captivity were released.

The Iberian lynx recovery and conservation project involves several public and private entities in Portugal and Spain.

In Portugal, coordination is the responsibility of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).