Joined-up EU: Iberian big cats

25 September 2006

In the wonderful world of European Union subsidies, cows famously get by on two dollars a day, whilst the people of Poland must do with €133 per year.  The Iberian Lynx, meanwhile, will benefit to the tune of €21,000 per big cat annually under a soon to be announced series of EU-funded projects, writes Stephen Gardner. The reason for throwing bucketfuls of European taxpayers' money at the lynx, causing raised eyebrows even amongst the people in charge of conservation at the European Commission, is that the species is highly endangered.  Only 100 or so remain in two small populations in Spain. The main cause of lynx fatalities is road accidents.  Two died on the road in mid-July alone, including a breeding female.  A major green gripe is a road between the Spanish towns of El Rocio and Villamanrique de la Condesa, built in 2000 without an environmental impact assessment being carried out, as required by EU law. Even more annoying for conservationists is that though the Spanish authorities were prepared to dispense with legal niceties, they were also happy to accept their own EU subsidies.  For the road, like others cutting through lynx territory, was built with EU money!

 

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