Five of the six members of the National Advisory Group for the Management and Conservation of Crocodilians resigned before the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), as confirmed by Henry Ramírez, an official of the institution.
For the official, the statements of the Minister of Environment, Édgar Gutiérrez, about the lack of results of the committee and the lack of execution of the proposals by the institution, were the cause of the massive resignation.
Juan José Sánchez, member of the commission, stressed that these were the two main reasons that caused the resignation:
The first (reason) are the statements by the Minister, where he attributes us a responsibility that we do not have. If the Ministry of Environment and Energy and SINAC had provided some financial resources to carry out the investigations, I would admit they are right. But MINAE and SINAC do not contribute with a single cent for this type of things; we work with resources from our own pockets… And the other reason is because this is not the first time. For many years we have been insisting on a series of things and on having SINAC support us economically, and on things that don’t happen, they are not done when they have to be done.”
The Commission had the function of accompanying and giving recommendations to SINAC-MINAE with technical-scientific criteria, in everything related to the welfare and quality of life of crocodiles. However, now SINAC was left without that committee, in which scientists worked Ad Honorem and contributed their own research.
According to data provided by the Continuous Quality Improvement Assessment System, SINAC has eight research projects built between 2011 and 2017, which were intended to be executed in seven conservation areas. These designs were elaborated by the members of the commission. However, seven years later, they are on paper and without implementation. But why?
Some members, not all, send a proposal for Canatur to finance it, but it turns out that this goes against one of the articles of the Advisory Committee reform, which indicates that group members cannot do jobs that have conflict of interest with the objectives pursued by the commission. They, as members of the advisory group, present a monitoring proposal to be financed by Canatur, but that cannot be done…”
said Angie Sánchez, coordinator of the National Wildlife Program.
SINAC officials mentioned that another reason is that, once the projects are accepted and launched, no one participates. “They are not running, because there are no bidders,” said Sanchez.
On the other hand, Henry Ramírez, stressed that the lack of resources and the lack of suitable personnel for the execution of the projects is another weaknesses of SINAC. It’s not an easy task,
First because the officials have to get in the water. Second, because the animals are aggressive. We have a case, we did training on the side of Palo Verde and in that training activity an official was injured in his phalanx,”
explained Ramírez.