80 eaves swallow nests (delichon urbicum) were removed from the four facades of the Municipal Market of Loulé, but everything was done in accordance with the law. The work was carried out on November 5th of last year, outside the nesting period and with due authorization from the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF).
O Sul Informação received a complaint from a reader who warned of the destruction, on the 25th of March, of these nests, in the middle of the nesting season of this wild bird in the South – and allegedly made at night, to go unnoticed.
The situation also caused controversy on social networks and even gave rise to a complaint to the GNR's Nature and Environment Protection Service (SEPNA).
Consulting the law, specifically Decree No. 140/99, it is read that, with regard to «all species of birds that occur naturally in the wild in the national territory, it is prohibited to destroy, damage, collect or detain their nests and eggs, even empty».
But, as explained by Julieta Costa, from the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA), to Sul Informação, "for swallow or stork nests, whoever intends to remove them must request authorization from the ICNF, which then defines the period in which this removal can be carried out, in order to avoid the time when the birds are there".
In other words: removal can be done, as long as authorized by ICNF.
Based on all of this, our newspaper was looking for answers and found that, in this specific case, in the Loulé Market, everything was done legally, even listening to various entities.
The process began on 27 September with a request from the municipal company Loulé Concelho Global, manager of the market, to ICNF to remove the nests. About a month later (on October 19), ICNF, through the regional director Valentina Calixto, issued the credential with the proper authorization.
Even so, in the document it is very explicit that the removal “must be carried out by December 31st”, so that it does not coincide with the nesting period.
And this actually ended up happening. In response to questions from Sul Informação, ICNF guaranteed that the removal of the 80 nests was carried out on November 5, "in the late afternoon".
David Pimentel, chairman of the Board of Directors of the municipal company Loulé Concelho Global, explained to our newspaper that the basis for the request to remove the nests was "works to preserve and waterproof the masonry in the spans of the four façades".
"The market structure is degraded and, from time to time, we have to do this maintenance, but we wanted to do it within the legal framework," he said.
In addition to the request to ICNF, Loulé Concelho Global requested opinions from other entities. From the Chamber's Environment Division, the technician Lina Madeira states, in an e-mail exchanged with the municipal company, that everything was done "in an unobjectionable way".
«Since Loulé Concelho Global has already applied for a license to the ICNF, obtaining a positive response, and as we are outside the nesting season of this wild bird, the nests may be removed from the building until December 31st , because, in principle, they are totally unoccupied, since the swallows have already started their annual migration route to Africa», reads, in an e-mail dated 23 October.
According to David Pimentel, on the afternoon the removal was carried out, the nests were “completely empty”.
Before the work, the company also consulted the PAN (People-Animals-Nature) of Loulé. In response, the political party says it "understands the need to clean and paint buildings legally", but leaves a suggestion: the installation of "mobile shelves" on the facades, under the nests, which "avoid dirt".
From Anabela Santos, from the Loulé association Almargem, also heard by Sul Informação, the recommendation is also to install these shelves in the future.
This is a system that prevents “the fall of waste” and which, David Pimentel assured our newspaper, “will be installed in the Loulé Market”.
Well, the authorization was given, the removal of the nests was done in a legal way, but the truth is that the conservation and waterproofing works… have not yet been done.
"The work should have started in January, but, in public procurement issues, it is important to realize that sometimes, what we aspire to does not always happen", explained David Pimentel to Sul Informação.
This is because these works on the Market's facades are part of a larger undertaking that involves painting the exterior and interior of the building, as well as the creation of a restaurant square in the emblematic space of Loulé.
“The contract will start in early September. We didn't want to be doing just part of the work, in this case on the façades,” explained David Pimental to our newspaper.
So, most likely, this whole process of requesting authorization “will have to be repeated”.
“The swallows' nests will appear again, but we weren't going to intervene only in the façades, without doing the rest of the work”, he concluded.
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