On Friday 2 June, the Technical Conference on Ecological Restoration and Transport Routes closed in Seville.

They were jointly organised by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the European projects LIFE LYNXCONNECT and LIFE Safe-Crossing.

This international forum, which consisted of different technical conferences, aimed to share strategies and actions to reduce the difficulties between species conservation and existing infrastructures. These conferences were a meeting to reflect on how to contribute to favouring the permeability of the territorial matrix and, in particular, to reducing the impacts on biodiversity of linear transport infrastructures and their relationship with ecological restoration.

Through different presentations, representatives from Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Canada, Panama, France, Austria and Romania addressed the environmental challenges we face and how roads and other transport routes hinder the free mobility of wildlife.

Within the scope of actions aimed at the deployment of green infrastructure, it is essential to promote planning mechanisms to integrate biodiversity into the development of transport infrastructure and to identify the sections of roads that present the best opportunities for restoring ecological connectivity.

LIFE LYNXCONNECT works in a large area in the central and southern Iberian Peninsula with the aim of connecting all existing lynx populations and achieving a self-sustaining and genetically viable population within five years. In connection with this, the LIFE Safe-Crossing project aims to implement actions to reduce the impact of roads on priority species in four European countries, such as the brown bear in the Apennines, the wolf in Italy, the Iberian lynx in Spain and the brown bear in Greece and Romania. They aim both to reduce habitat fragmentation and the permeability of asphalt roads to ensure that the free mobility of wildlife in different territories does not jeopardise the conservation of the species.of road sections that present the best opportunities for restoring ecological connectivity.

To conclude the conference, the participants travelled to the A-481, between Villamanrique de la Condesa (Seville) and Hinojos (Huelva), where the LIFE Safe-Crossing project is working on a type of signalling, which aims to generate a state of alertness and attention for drivers on the road in certain sections or conflictive points with the aim of reducing the probability of collision with wildlife