This Tuesday, the Livre party presented a request addressed to the Minister of the Environment to ask for clarification on the removal of the current team from the National Center for Iberian Lynx Reproduction (CNRLI), in Silves, arguing that the process must be “transparent”.
The change of management of the center is scheduled for the end of the month, with the structure now being directly managed by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (). Speaking to the Lusa agency, the person responsible for the current CNRLI team, Rodrigo Serra, expressed concern about the future of the project and criticized the way in which workers are being treated after more than a decade of dedication.
In the request, Livre questions Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho about the reasons that led to the non-renewal of the contract with the current team, made up of 14 professionals, including veterinarians and technicians, who have managed the center for 16 years.
The party considers that the process “must be clarified and transparent, since the conservation of the Iberian lynx is not a matter of internal management of the ICNF, but rather a strategic environmental policy, with European public funding and shared responsibility before Portuguese society and the international community”.
Livre asks the Government for clarification
Among the questions posed to the guardianship, Livre wants to know how it will be guaranteed that the change does not compromise the Iberian lynx reintroduction program, if there is a defined transition plan and what will be the future of workers at the company responsible for operating the CNRLI since 2009.
Also on Tuesday, the center’s technical team released a statement expressing “deep concern” regarding the form and timeline planned for the transition.
The professionals defend the need for a technically, legally and operationally safe transition, “duly coordinated with the Iberian partners involved in the Iberian lynx conservation program over the last 16 years, with proven success”.
The team also warns that the change affects 14 highly specialized professionals, including veterinarians, handlers, technicians and “specialists who have accumulated unique knowledge about the behavior, reproduction, management and recovery of the species”, without any solution being presented for these workers.
Technical manager criticizes lack of transition plan
Rodrigo Serra, coordinator of the Iberian Ex-situ Conservation Program for the Iberian lynx and technically responsible for the operation of the CNRLI over the last 16 years, confirmed to Lusa that there is still no concrete information about the process.
According to the person responsible, the company’s workers were informally informed that they could transition to the new management through fixed-term contracts, a situation that he considers to represent illegal precariousness.
Rodrigo Serra also stated that the team already knew informally that the ICNF intended to change the management model and “internalize the success of the Iberian lynx”.
Despite this, he emphasizes that the main problem lies in the lack of a true transition process between the teams.
Team fears loss of technical knowledge
“We are available to continue guaranteeing this highly specialized work, and we will be here until the ICNF tells us that we have to leave”, said Rodrigo Serra, highlighting the importance of transmitting knowledge.
“We are not opposed to a change of management, but the absence of a safe transition is an increased risk,” he added.
With just over two weeks to go before the scheduled date for the change, Rodrigo Serra guarantees that no transition process has yet begun, arguing that this work should last at least a year, considering that “training a team cannot be done in three weeks”.
The official concluded that both lynxes and the professionals involved could be at risk with this process. “There is information that will be lost”, he lamented, adding that the Spanish entities linked to the program are also “concerned” about what could happen.
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