Map of the current and potential populations of the Western Europe lynx (Lynx lynx) metapopulation

In compliance with the initial recommendations made by the national action plan (PNA), in March 2022 the Ecology Minister and the Junior Minister for Biodiversity together commissioned the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) and the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) to carry out an assessment of the conditions required for the viability of the Eurasian lynx in France in 2030, a decisive factor for its presence in France, and the effects on viability of a potential effort to reinforce those populations. The assessment was carried out over 18 months by a project team and a group of 15 French and Swiss experts implementing a multi-disciplinary approach in the fields of both ecology and the human and social sciences. The project also benefited from the knowledge of French and European experts from outside the project team, who were contacted as needed to fill out and enhance the overall process. The files presented here map both i) the geographic range of current and potential populations composing the Western Europe lynx metapopulation according to the 2024 population viability assessment work performed, as well as ii) the respective areas they are susceptible to expand into if environmental condition were to become more favorable. The delimitation of the current range of each population was based on the proportion of favorable habitat within a 10x10km grid. The threshold retained, of at least 40%, allowed to get delimitation matching the presence range currently observed and were also validated by experts of the species ecology. The area each population could geographically extend into were derived from the former using Voronoi Tessellation.