The lynx breeding centre in the hills to the east of Silves has successfully bred many lynx but so far all those released into the wild have gone to the Spanish region of Andalucia.
This is to change and Portugal one day may have its own lynx population after a meeting at the National Centre for Reproduction of the Iberian Lynx concluded with the news that there was a need "to define an action plan for the reintroduction of the Iberian lynx to Portugal in 2014.”
It may come as a surprise that this had not already been decided as the whole point of the support money from Águas do Algarve was to do just that. Still, an action plan is always a good start and the meeting did seem to have the right people there in Marques Ferreira and Isabel Soares on behalf of Águas do Algarve, Paula Sarmento as president of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forestry, Rodrigo Sierra responsible for the breeding centre, Maxime Bispo the Deputy mayor of Silves, and João Correia the president of Messines Parish Council.
Sadly, Rosa Palma the new mayor of Silves was not in attendance as she could have sat across the table from the former mayor of Silves, Isabel Soares - how they could have chatted...
Teresa Fernandes, the spokeswoman for the water company said that the Plan of Action has begun to take shape and provides for the "realisation of a strong focus on communication, education, community outreach in partnership with other regional, national and international entities,” exactly.
Hidden among these laudable but vacuous statements was the news that an Interpretation Centre was to be created in Silves where visitors can view the lynx via a video link so as not to disturb the animals.
The water company believes that Silves will be an ideal location for the Interpretation Centre and Fernandes concluded that "This was the first preparatory meeting, so we can initiate the Action Plan, which will involve all entities that were present, because in this way there will be synergies where we all have the same goals to achieve more structured results.”
The lynx centre was built using money from a compensation fund established to counteract the damage to nature caused by the construction of the Odelouca dam and the subsequent flooding of the valley.
Águas do Algarve had other compensation activities to undertake and it does seem to take their completion seriously, mainly because someone from the European Commission is monitoring progress.
The dam, or something like it, was needed to sort out the Algarve’s water supply problems and it now is part of the Multi System Algarve Water Supply, whose purpose is the assured provision of public water to the region. This has been a success with an estimated three years water now held in reserve.
The lynx centre was expected to produce a steady number of the wild animals for Portugal but until now this has not been achieved, with the centre management citing poor local food supply among reasons that Spain has had them all and Portugal still waits.
When the master plan is agreed and actually put into action, the Algarve and Alentejo may again have lynx, which was the original idea after all.