The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has removed the Iberian lynx from its 'red list' of species in critical danger of extinction in an announcement described by the organisation as "fantastic news."
The animal has been reclassified by the IUCN, based in Switzerland, as "in danger" which is one level lower than critically endangered.
The joint Spanish-Portuguese 'Life-Iberlince' programme was hailed as a success as since 2011 the partners have worked to restore the lynx to the Iberia peninsular although no comments yet have been received from Portuguese partner organisations.
The removal of the lynx from the red list came as part of an assessment of the 77,340 species that currently are listed. The lynx was studied by two scientists who concluded that, after six decades of decline, there has been a steady increase in population between 2002 and 2012.
During that period, the number of reproductive females swelled to 97 from just 27. The total population of adults reached 156 and their distribution considerably has increased during the period.
These developments are described as "excellent proof that conservation actions really work."
The IUCN stressed that much more work needs to be done in order to ensure the species’ future population growth.
Nineteen partners are involved in the lynx project which began with the reintroduction of lynx in Portugal and Spain that had been bred in captivity with 43 released last year.
A European Environment Agency spokesman commented today that Portugal seems completely unaware of the conservation status of some of its species and habitats, particularly the sea.
"There is much ignorance about some species and some habitats, but more about species than habitats.
Portugal seems uninformed on species and habitat condition and on populations and trends. This is especially evident for birds," said the coordinator of the Biodiversity Department of the European Environment Agency.
Ivone Pereira Martins from the agency said that Portugal relied on guesstimates from experts, while in other countries there are monitoring systems for species and for habitats even though these are more costly.
