The European Union communicated to all partners last May, through the coordinating beneficiary - Junta de Andalucía - that this new project passed the different evaluation criteria, both for consistency and technical-financial quality, and due to the added value for the European Union.

On the other hand, it constitutes the sequence and logical evolution of the previous LIFE + Iberlince project, which took place between September 2011 and June 2018, within which ICNF and other national public and private partners and the neighbouring country, with the indispensable support and welcoming by local populations and local authorities in the Guadiana Valley, managed to reintroduce the Iberian lynx into Portuguese territory, with a stabilised character, which has not occurred since the end of the 20th century.

This project, which brings together 20 Iberian partners, has as coordinating beneficiary the Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Desarrollo Sostenible of the Junta de Andalucía, and on the part of Portugal, in addition to the ICNF, participating as partners to Infrastructures of Portugal, IP and the Intermunicipal Community of Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL).

In financial terms, the project implies a total investment of 18.5 million Euros, with ICNF being slightly less than 1.5 million, with a financing rate of 60.67 percent, which translates into a global community financing of almost 11.4 million Euros.

Portugal, through ICNF, Infrastructures of Portugal and CIMBAL, and with the support of other entities, intends to consolidate the population created between 2015 and 2018 in the Guadiana Valley, to establish small population centres that reinforce connectivity with the subpopulations of Andalusia, Castilla -La Mancha and the Spanish Extremadura and, also, to consider the possibility of a new reintroduction area, through the evaluation of potential territories that bring together the appropriate conditions of habitat, food, natural continuity and tranquillity and social acceptance for the establishment of a new population.

In parallel with the measures directly related to the target species of this project, initiatives of a social nature will be developed, promoting, raising awareness and informing local and urban audiences, alongside other actions that will have indirect positive effects on the Mediterranean ecosystem and on the economy creating better living conditions for local populations and providing alternatives for sustainable development, for example, through nature tourism.

From the experience obtained in the Guadiana Valley, the presence of the Iberian lynx in this territory has resulted in several gains for the resident population or those who depend on it economically, their presence not having constituted an added condition, on the contrary, since it attracts visitors and has come to represent a brand of high quality and attractiveness for this region of the Guadiana Valley.