PS demands urgent visit to Silves lynx centre amid growing concern over management shake-up – Portugal Resident

Portugal’s Socialist Party (PS) is calling for an urgent visit to the National Iberian Lynx Breeding Centre (CNRLI) in Silves, as public concern mounts over the government’s decision to place the facility under direct state management without a publicly known transition plan.

The party wants Parliament’s Environment and Energy Committee to hear from both the centre’s technical team and the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), following mounting criticism from conservation specialists who warn that the abrupt change could put decades of accumulated expertise – and the future of the Iberian lynx recovery programme – at risk.

“Without questioning the government’s legitimacy to decide on the management model for the Iberian lynx reintroduction programme, the abrupt way in which the announcement was made, almost without prior notice and without any known transition plan, has increased concern within the technical and scientific community,” said Luís Graça, PS MP elected for the Faro district and the lead signatory of the parliamentary request.

The Socialists also want committee members to visit the Silves facility and observe firsthand the work carried out at the centre over the past 16 years.

“The coordinator of the Iberian Conservation Programme and technical director responsible for operating the CNRLI has publicly stated that he was never officially informed of the ICNF’s decision to internalise management. To this day, no technical, legal or operational transition plan has been made public to justify the change,” Luís Graça added.

The future of the current technical team is another major concern raised by the Socialists. The group includes 14 specialised professionals responsible for overseeing all stages of the lynx’s annual breeding and conservation cycle.

The Socialists also stressed that the recovery of the Iberian lynx is internationally recognised as a conservation success story. At the start of this century, the species was close to extinction, with only around 100 animals remaining across the Iberian Peninsula. Today, the population exceeds 2,400.

Environmental NGO Quercus has also called for clarification over the management change, which Environment Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho has called a matter of “internal management”.