The LIFE Nature Project ‘Enhancing habitat for the Iberian Lynx and Black Vulture in the Southeast of Portugal’, which acronym is LIFE Habitat Lince Abutre, is co-funded in 75% by the European Commission’s LIFE Programme and has an overall budget of about 2,6 million euros. The Project, starting from January 2010 and extended until September 2014, is being implemented in the regions of Mourão, Moura and Barrancos, Guadiana Valley and Caldeirão Hills, in the Natura 2000 Network areas therein.

This project aims to contribute to the improvement of the survival, feeding and breeding conditions of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) and the Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus) in southeast Portugal, while also benefiting a wide set of other threatened species. For that, management agreements will be established with local stakeholders, namely landowners, managers, farmers and hunters, in order to promote the conservation of the natural landscape where the Iberian lynx and the Black Vulture inhabit. Another objective is to aware and involve the society in the Nature and Biodiversity conservation of the region.

Although they are species with very distinct appearances and habits, the Iberian lynx and the Black Vulture have a lot in common – they share the habitat where they live, the prey they feed (wild rabbit), and many threats that, over time, led them to share the conservation status of Critically Endangered in Portugal. We believe that only with the participation and involvement of everyone, joining citizens and national institutions, it will be possible to fight these threats, thus ensuring the long term recovery and conservation of the Iberian lynx, the Black Vulture and its habitats.