Background The Eurasian lynx (lynx lynx carpathicus) disappeared from the Rhineland-Palatinate area in the 18th century. Nowadays the closest population of lynx to the Pfälzerwald/Palatinate Forest is a French population in the southern Vosges. Monitoring in the Pfälzerwald has periodically identified individual lynxes. These are expected to originate from the Vosges population and have shown no sign of establishing a resident population in the Pfälzerwald. A programme of reintroducing lynx in the Pfälzerwald is therefore considered important in order to re-establish a population of the species in its formerly natural range in the Palatinate Forest. Around 90% of the project area is public land and the relevant authorities all indicate their support for the reintroduction of lynx. Other key stakeholders (including civil society groups and hunters) are also supportive. Objectives The project’s main aim is to re-establish a lynx population in the Palatinate Forest. This will be achieved through a reintroduction programme involving the release of 20 lynx, (10 coming from Switzerland and 10 from Slovakia) Expected results: A reproducing population of lynx re-established in the project area; Close cooperation between German and French stakeholders (especially hunters, shepherds or other livestock owners) to establish self-contained, long-term acceptance of the lynx; Public acceptance of the lynx in the regions of Palatinate-Forest, Alsace and Lorraine; Scientific monitoring and evaluation of the reintroduction work; Development (and agreement by stakeholders) of a local plan for the lynx in the Palatinate Forest; and Completion and dissemination of new guidelines for ‘Wildlife Overpasses in Spatial Planning’ in order to increase the permeability of traffic infrastructure at the level of land-use planning in the Palatinate Forest, as well as in a larger range e.g. in other low range mountains in Rhineland-Palatinate and possibly other federal states.