92002E3468

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3468/02

by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 December 2002)

Subject: Iberian lynx

Has the Commission made contributions to efforts designed to reverse the impending extinction of the Iberian lynx? Is the Commission aware of any breeding programmes, in captivity or in the wild? Are any EC funds allocated towards such a breeding programme?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(29 January 2003)

The Commission has supported, for several years already, conservation projects targeted at the Iberian lynx in both Portugal and Spain. In particular, several LIFE-Nature projects received community funding for increasing the knowledge about the species and for creating adequate conditions, in terms of habitats and food resources, for the conservation of the Iberian lynx on sites where it still can be found or for allowing the return of the species to areas that it inhabited in the recent past. Altogether there have been 18 LIFE Nature projects on Iberian lynx in Spain and two in Portugal; three of these are still ongoing.

The Commission is aware that during the year 2000 the Directorate-General for Nature Conservation in Spain has prepared an Action plan for breeding in captivity of the Iberian Lynx. The National Commission for Nature Protection in Spain approved this plan and it is carried out in the facilities of Doñana National Park. To date no direct funding for this undertaking have been requested or given by the Commission.

LIFE Nature projects on Iberian Lynx:

- Year 1994:

- Conservation of the Iberian lynx Castilla y León (LIFE94 NAT/E/001186)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Comunidad de Madrid) (LIFE94 NAT/E/004808)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (LIFE94 NAT/E/004809)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (LIFE94 NAT/E/004810)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Andalucía) (LIFE94 NAT/E/004811)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Castilla-La Mancha) (LIFE94 NAT/E/004813)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Extremadura) (LIFE94 NAT/E/004814)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (LIFE94NAT/P/001058)

- Year 1995:

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Extremadura) (LIFE95 NAT/E/004815)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Castilla la Mancha) (LIFE95 NAT/E/004816

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Castilla y Leon) (LIFE95 NAT/E/004817)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Andalucía) (LIFE95 NAT/E/004818)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (Madrid) (LIFE95 NAT/E/004819)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (LIFE95 NAT/E/004820)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx (LIFE95 NAT/E/004821)

- Year 1998:

- Conservation of Lynx pardinus in Extremadura (LIFE98 NAT/E/005343)

- Year 1999:

- Conservation of the Imperial eagle, Black vulture, Black stork and Iberian lynx on private protected land in Extremadura and Castilla-La-Mancha (LIFE99 NAT/E/006336)

- Recovery of habitats and preys of Lynx pardinus in Serra da Malcata (LIFE99NAT/P/006423)

- Year 2002:

- Recovery of the populations of the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Andalucía (LIFE02NAT/E/8609)

- Conservation of the Iberian Lynx in Montes de Toledo-Guadalmena (LIFE02NAT/E/8617)