The Directorate General for the Natural Environment (Regional Ministry of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Environment) of the Region of Murcia participates as a partner in the LIFE project “Creation of a genetically and demographically functional Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) metapopulation”, known as LIFE LYNXCONNECT.

On Thursday 27 January 2022, a meeting was held between representatives of the Directorate General for the Natural Environment and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura to present the project and explain its objectives and the main actions to be undertaken. The President of the CHS, Mario Urrea, and the Deputy Commissioner, Adolfo Mérida, were present on behalf of the River Basin Authority. On behalf of the DGMN, its Director General, Fulgencio Perona, and the Deputy Director General for Natural Heritage and Climate Change, Juan Faustino Martínez.

An agreement is expected to be signed soon between the Autonomous Community and the CHS, as the latter is the owner of some of the land where the LIFE project actions will be carried out.

The President, Mr. Mario Urrea, expressed his willingness to collaborate in this project. LYNXCONNECT, which began in September 2020 and will end in 2025, aims to increase both the overall size of the Iberian lynx population and the connectivity between the existing core populations to ensure a self-sustaining and genetically viable functional metapopulation in the long term. In addition to connecting the six existing nuclei on the Iberian Peninsula, two new nuclei will be created, one of them in the western part of the region, in the municipality of Lorca.

The Directorate General for the Natural Environment of the Region of Murcia is one of the 21 partners in this project, the coordinating partner being the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Regional Government of Andalusia.