Landscape ecology and conservation management—Evaluation of alternatives in a highway EIA process

The use of an Integrated Landscape Ecological Approach on the evaluation of the impact of a proposed highway over a high sensitive habitat of the highly endangered Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardina L) is described. This method prevents the occurrence of common errors in the decision making process by allowing an increased knowledge of the ecological constraints of the project. It builds, consequently, a very powerful tool for nature conservation assessment and for the ecological evaluation and the decision process in situations of low ecological data availability. The conflict of arguments on the consistency of the conclusions of the method is also described.