The president of Quercus plans to sell some of the organisation's land, purchased with donations, to the owner of a hunting estate.
Quercus is the environmental organisation, founded in 1985, whose membership is composed of citizens who have an interest in the conservation of nature, natural resources and in defence of the environment in general.
The owner of a hunting estate made an offer to buy some land near the Tejo river, owned by Quercus, which owns various parcels along the riverside and inland.
A petition against the sale already has over 600 signatories but the association's president, João Branco, says the information contained in the petition is false.
Quercus started to buy up land along the Tejo in the late 1980s so as to conserve nature and encourage the species that lived there.
Many citizens and sympathetic organisations donated money to the Tejo International Project, including the European Commission.
The petitioners say the land, if sold, will be used a hunting area and thus "misrepresents the principle by which it was acquired."
"The purpose of signing the petition is to compel the administration to listen to supporters who gave money to buy the land," said an inside source.
Branco says the land in question may not have been bough with the project money, but with resources held by Quercus.
The President of Quercus explained, "It is true that we have received a proposal from an owner who has small parcels of Quercus land inside his estate, but we have not yet decided anything."
When the land was acquired by the organisation, the purchase had to be approved by the General Assembly. Now, after the changes in the Articles of Association, it is sufficient to proceed with a ‘favorable’ opinion of the Supervisory Board.
João Branco says it is more sensible to sell these small blocs of land and use the money to buy more land that adjoins larger Quercus plots.
